On 22 November 2011, the Federal Agency for Printed and Mass Media (Rospechat) in tandem with the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC) co-organized a press conference “Runet: year in review and prospects of expansion” at the RIA Novosti press center . Andrey Kolesnikov, the CC’s CEO, took part in the press conference.

In his presentation, Sergey Plutogarenko, the RAEC’s CEO, listed major 2011 Runet developments. One of those, in his opinion, was the success of the Cyrillic domain .РФ. “By the end of the year, the number of domain names registered in zone .РФ nearly hit one million; it can now be asserted that the domain not only exists and functions successfully, but is popular with users,” – noted S. Plutogarenko. As to other major highlights of the year, he noted IPOs by two leading Russian Internet companies, Yandex and Mail.ru Group, as well as a rapid expansion of mobile Internet and e- commerce in Russia.

Andrey Kolesnikov, the CC’s CEO, elaborated on domain .РФ. “Russian domain space keep expanding and by its size already holds leading positions worldwide,” – noticed he. As of today, domain .РФ boasts 930,567 registered domain names, with 58.7% of them already delegated and 35% – actively used by their owners. As of today, more than a half of domains registered in November 2010, in the first month of the open registration period, have already been extended. “I figure, next year, domain .РФ will hit a mark of 1,000,000 registered domain names, – added A. Kolesnikov, – and we will have new equally exciting projects. We kicked off preparations for the applying for another top-level domain – .ДЕТИ, which should for an Internet space reserved exclusively for the youngest users.”

Mikhail Seslavinsky, Head of Rospechat, noted that the Internet forms a main source of information for 25% of Russians. “It’s a very significant figure. Some 57 million people use the Internet weekly, and the young Internet audience is growing constantly. Gradually, the Internet becomes available in libraries and educational organizations. More and more people go online using mobile devices.” M. Seslavinsky also added that 70% of users go online in search of information, 59% – to log in social networks and another 53%- to read news. “People are learning to look for relevant information online and begin to trust the Internet as a source of information.”

The press conference was also attended by Olga Brukovskaya, Vice-President on marketing, Mail.ru Group; Oleg Rumyantsev, pr-director of Rostelekom; Marina Treschova, General Director, Fast Lane Ventures; and Denis Davydov, Director of the Safer Internet League.

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