ccTLDs.com » Country Code Specific Forums » .ru Forum

[DomainInvesting]

Has anyone had any experience with .ru domains? I would imagine as a huge growing economy there would have to be a nice market for these.

Do businesses in Russia brand around the .com or .ru TLD?

Thanks in advance for any insights!

[igor]

".ru" is mostly used in Russia and highly prefered in comparison to ".com"

I would not call ".ru" an emerging trend.

It is pretty establsihed and populated by domainers.

There are plenty of local forums in Russian where domainers share and trade.
Hard to see this forum will be very popular (, but good luck anyway).

Prices are relatively high too.

russia.ru was sold several times with the end-user tag was around $200k.

Some domainers start looking into ".com" as alternative - though I do not see benefits here.
zoloto.com (gold in Russian) was recenly sold on Sedo for around $17k.

Everyone is waiting for a new ".***1088;***1092;" (Russian Federation) extention coming with Russian letters only.
This should solve the problem of writing Russian words in English - for some letters there are several ways possiple to write a Russian letter in English.
This may be a good investing opportunity.

[Rick Latona]

Originally Posted by igor

".ru" is mostly used in Russia and highly prefered in comparison to ".com"

I would not call ".ru" an emerging trend.

It is pretty establsihed and populated by domainers.

There are plenty of local forums in Russian where domainers share and trade.
Hard to see this forum will be very popular (, but good luck anyway).

Prices are relatively high too.

russia.ru was sold several times with the end-user tag was around $200k.

Some domainers start looking into ".com" as alternative - though I do not see benefits here.
zoloto.com (gold in Russian) was recenly sold on Sedo for around $17k.

Everyone is waiting for a new ".***1088;***1092;" (Russian Federation) extention coming with Russian letters only.
This should solve the problem of writing Russian words in English - for some letters there are several ways possiple to write a Russian letter in English.
This may be a good investing opportunity.

I imagine that Russian is like many other languages and there are always more than one way to write something. What I mean by that is that there would be no way for them to grandfather in example.ru with russianlettersexample.***1088;***1092;, giving first right of refusal to non-russian letter equivelents, right?

[igor]

All Russian domains in ".ru' that are actually in use consist of "EnglishLetters.ru"
TransliterationOf(Russian(example)).ru = "primer.ru" since "RussianLetters.ru" (***1087;***1088;***1080;***1084;***1077;***1088;.ru) is not convenient since one has to switch language to type this with keyboard.

It is not a problem to use Latin to write Russian word (so called translit or transliteration) when there is a single and unique way to do this.

"example.ru" -> "primer.ru" or "***1087;***1088;***1080;***1084;***1077;***1088;.ru"

But for some russian letters there are different ways of doing so.
E.g. "***1078;" can be expressed as "g" , "j" or 'zh" ...


with ".***1088;***1092;" there will be no need to use transliteration plus no need to switch language to type "RussianLetters.***1088;***1092;" - everything goes in Russian.

So strong ".ru" domains with unique transliteration - a way to express Russian word in English should remain their values. Others will be much easier to express in "RussianLetters.***1088;***1092;" fasion.

It also depends on how strong promotion will be for ".***1088;***1092;" extension (government level).
In case of strong support and promotion ".***1088;***1092;" could take a very strong position (but most probably not substitute ".ru"). In that case investing in ".***1088;***1092;" might be a very good investment.
Though I do not plan to invest a lot in ".***1088;***1092;" since ".ru" is a sole and strong leader now.
But there isalso another opinion that ".***1088;***1092; will decrease the value of ".ru" domains.

Other countries should have the same issue.
Indian Transliteration
http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic

[Rick Latona]

Originally Posted by igor

All Russian domains in ".ru' that are actually in use consist of "EnglishLetters.ru"
TransliterationOf(Russian(example)).ru = "primer.ru" since "RussianLetters.ru" (***1087;***1088;***1080;***1084;***1077;***1088;.ru) is not convenient since one has to switch language to type this with keyboard.

It is not a problem to use Latin to write Russian word (so called translit or transliteration) when there is a single and unique way to do this.

"example.ru" -> "primer.ru" or "***1087;***1088;***1080;***1084;***1077;***1088;.ru"

But for some russian letters there are different ways of doing so.
E.g. "***1078;" can be expressed as "g" , "j" or 'zh" ...


with ".***1088;***1092;" there will be no need to use transliteration plus no need to switch language to type "RussianLetters.***1088;***1092;" - everything goes in Russian.

So strong ".ru" domains with unique transliteration - a way to express Russian word in English should remain their values. Others will be much easier to express in "RussianLetters.***1088;***1092;" fasion.

It also depends on how strong promotion will be for ".***1088;***1092;" extension (government level).
In case of strong support and promotion ".***1088;***1092;" could substitute ".ru". In that case investing in ".***1088;***1092;" might be a very good investment.
Though I do not plan to invest a lot in ".***1088;***1092;" since ".ru" is a sole and strong leader now.
But there isalso another opinion that ".***1088;***1092; will decrease the value of ".ru" domains.

Other countries should have the same issue.
Indian Transliteration
http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic

I would be one to bet that ***1088;***1092; will decrease the value over the long run. I don't see why they would use the transliterated letters if they don't need to. It could take 10 years for it to change but I would think change was inevitable.

[igor]

Originally Posted by Rick Latona

I would be one to bet that ***1088;***1092; will decrease the value over the long run. I don't see why they would use the transliterated letters if they don't need to. It could take 10 years for it to change but I would think change was inevitable.

One complication now of using Russian Letters is that it will be great for typing main address like RussianLetters.***1088;***1092; but for further references English will be required:

e.g.

RussianLetters.***1088;***1092;/index.html

RussianLetters.***1088;***1092;/en

...

[Rick Latona]

Originally Posted by igor

One complication now of using Russian Letters is that it will be great for typing main address like RussianLetters.***1088;***1092; but for further references English will be required:

e.g.

RussianLetters.***1088;***1092;/index.html

RussianLetters.***1088;***1092;/en

...

Apache doesn't support them? I hadn't even thought about that issue in regards to idn.idn names.

[igor]

Originally Posted by Rick Latona

Apache doesn't support them? I hadn't even thought about that issue in regards to idn.idn names.

I am not sure here - it is possibly fine for folder and file names- but extensions must be in English I suppose.

[DomainInvesting]

Thank you for all of the information igor!

[Ray Neu]

Where is the best place to register .ru ?

[igor]

Originally Posted by Ray Neu

Where is the best place to register .ru ?

- reg.ru

Good overall (and cheaper)

- nic.ru

Big player - like NSI

[Alfredo]

Originally Posted by igor

One complication now of using Russian Letters is that it will be great for typing main address like RussianLetters.***1088;***1092; but for further references English will be required:

e.g.

RussianLetters.***1088;***1092;/index.html

RussianLetters.***1088;***1092;/en

...

Others options:
RussianLetters.***1088;***1092;/150/
RussianLetters.***1088;***1092;/456/210/

The pages can load without extensions (php, html, asp...)

It's very simple with Apache and .htaccess

[Alfredo]

Do you know when will start .***1088;***1092;?

[NeazMH]

Originally Posted by igor

".ru" is mostly used in Russia and highly prefered in comparison to ".com"

I agree with igor and I really appreciate the details you provided.

[Raihan]

igor Thats a great post. Thanks

[bartosiewicz.pl]

Originally Posted by igor

I am not sure here - it is possibly fine for folder and file names- but extensions must be in English I suppose.

Igor, I see no problem with file names/extensions etc.

People use domain name for navigation and then are clicking other links not knowing of the URL construction. This is one of the reasons domains are so popular, people don't need to memorize whole URL or IP addresses.

Originally Posted by Alfredo

Do you know when will start .***1088;***1092;?

I'm sure .***1088;***1092; will be one of the first IDN-ccTLDs. Russian ccTLD Registry is very active in ICANN, trying to convince ICANN to start new ccTLDs with "national characters".

The only problem is the very slow process of adoption of IDN-cc/gTLDs @ ICANN level. I would be very surprised to see IDN-ccTLD operating in 2010.

More on "fast-track" you can find here.

Andrzej Bartosiewicz

[Mind]

Originally Posted by igor

All Russian domains in ".ru' that are actually in use consist of "EnglishLetters.ru"
TransliterationOf(Russian(example)).ru = "primer.ru" since "RussianLetters.ru" (***1087;***1088;***1080;***1084;***1077;***1088;.ru) is not convenient since one has to switch language to type this with keyboard.

It is not a problem to use Latin to write Russian word (so called translit or transliteration) when there is a single and unique way to do this.

"example.ru" -> "primer.ru" or "***1087;***1088;***1080;***1084;***1077;***1088;.ru"

But for some russian letters there are different ways of doing so.
E.g. "***1078;" can be expressed as "g" , "j" or 'zh" ...


with ".***1088;***1092;" there will be no need to use transliteration plus no need to switch language to type "RussianLetters.***1088;***1092;" - everything goes in Russian.

So strong ".ru" domains with unique transliteration - a way to express Russian word in English should remain their values. Others will be much easier to express in "RussianLetters.***1088;***1092;" fasion.

It also depends on how strong promotion will be for ".***1088;***1092;" extension (government level).
In case of strong support and promotion ".***1088;***1092;" could take a very strong position (but most probably not substitute ".ru"). In that case investing in ".***1088;***1092;" might be a very good investment.
Though I do not plan to invest a lot in ".***1088;***1092;" since ".ru" is a sole and strong leader now.
But there isalso another opinion that ".***1088;***1092; will decrease the value of ".ru" domains.

Other countries should have the same issue.
Indian Transliteration
Google Indic Transliteration

I can confirm that here (Bulgaria), we have the same problems.
Most frequently EnglishWords.com or EgnlishWords.bg are registered. As most of the English Words are already registered there are two options:
- TransliteratedCyrilic.com TransliteratedCyrilic.bg example: rabota.com (job)
- Another option I see so frequently is EnglishWords-bg.com
Transliteration is sometimes ambiguous due to some characters (***1078;, ***1094;, ***1098;).
Generally businesses prefer to register .com. Mostly due to the some restrictions that existed before to register .bg

I almost never seen IDN BG names.

[jmcc]

The .ru ccTLD is one of the largest ccTLDs with 2066124 domains registered as of 23/April/2009. It has the critical mass of domain names for a good extension. Surprisingly the old .su ccTLD is still active with 84517 domains registered.

Regards...jmcc

[Brands-and-Jingles]

There is more Russian content in .ru than in .com (the ratio is 100:40 for the moment, for Nordic and Central European countries' ccTLDs this ratio is between 100:25 and 100:5).

Many Russians .com are in use and many .com have Russian versions, like youtube, wikipedia, etc.

One should not underestimate influence of those .com brands on public's TLD perception.