The Russian RuNet is celebrating its anniversary: on April 7, 2024, the Russian segment of the Internet turned thirty years old. During its operation and development, it has become an integral part of the Russian economy, scientific and technological development, and has made government services, purchases, and education more convenient and simpler. It is now very difficult to imagine life without RuNet: according to RAEC statistics, 85% of Russians use the Internet, or more than 103 million people.
The head of the Russian government sent his congratulations to the Russians. He noted that RuNet, with its daily audience of one hundred million and thousands of companies represented in it, is considered one of the largest parts of the Network at the global level. And it continues to grow.
Despite unprecedented sanctions pressure, the digital industry is demonstrating stable and sustainable growth. Our own software solutions, services and online platforms are being created and implemented, which compete with foreign counterparts and replace them in the domestic market. And according to preliminary estimates by experts, the volume of the Russian Internet economy grew by a third last year.
About 110 million people are currently using the "Gosuslugi" portal. This is an opportunity to quickly and conveniently receive government services without leaving your home.
A set of measures is being implemented to support the IT industry, and priority attention is paid to the training of highly qualified personnel, innovative developments in promising areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and new generation 5G communication networks. All this will make it possible to fulfill the task set by the President to strengthen the scientific potential and achieve the technological sovereignty of our country.
«Perviy Technicheskiy» has collected five interesting facts about the modern RuNet and its development on its anniversary.
Domain .RU — Growth Leader Among National Domains
The Russian domain .RU is one of the largest in the world among all national top-level domains. In 2023, .RU grew by 506,024 domains (+10.3%). It returned to 5th place in the world ranking of country domains and became the undisputed leader in terms of growth among national top-level domains.
The Most Profitable Area of RuNet is Electronic Commerce
According to the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC), RuNet's contribution to the domestic economy is increasing. In 2023, it grew by 35% compared to 2022 and amounted to 16.4 trillion rubles. The leader was e-commerce, which, according to estimates announced by the RAEC leadership, accounted for 15.4 trillion rubles in 2023.
For comparison: revenues to the federal budget of Russia in 2023 from the collection of oil and gas production and sales amounted to 8.822 trillion rubles.
RuNet Helped Conduct the Largest Remote Voting in the World
It not only helps to buy, sell, receive and provide services, but also...vote. Remote electronic voting has been conducted in Russia since 2021 in test mode, and this year it has gained momentum. In the presidential elections in Russia, residents of Moscow and twenty-eight Russian regions were able to vote online instead of going to polling stations.
4 million 767 thousand 974 voters registered and received the right to participate in the federal DEG system. This was not only a Russian, but also a world record. Prior to this, remote electronic voting in elections of this level had not been carried out in such volumes in world practice.
More Than 30% of Russian Domain Names Have Existed for Less Than a Year
Domain names registered in RuNet are actively used: according to statistics from the Coordination Center for .RU/.РФ domains, 96% of them are currently actively used. Almost all Russian domain names belong to Russians: according to the CCD, by April 2024 they already owned 85% of domain names in the .RU zone.
More than a third of Russian domain names in RuNet – 36.4% – were registered more than five years ago, and 32% are very young, less than a year old. And it's not just about sanctions.
Today, many Russian companies and projects choose the .RU domain, and not foreign domain zones – this applies to both new projects and those that have moved from other domain zones, primarily from the .COM zone. And it's not just about the difficulties with paying for international domains with Western registrars: the .RU zone is more secure for users today. The Coordination Center and competent organizations are actively fighting phishing and blocking fraudulent resources faster than anyone else in the world.
In numbers, 1,709,718 new domains were registered in .RU in 2023. At the same time, from January to September, an average of 123 thousand domains were registered per month, and from October to December – 201 thousand domains per month.
The Cyrillic domain .РФ grew by 92,769 domain names or 13.7% in 2023, which, according to the CCD, is a «extremely high indicator».
Some Sites in Russia Can Be Visited With a Zero Balance
At the end of 2021, a law on free access to socially significant Internet resources came into force in Russia. This is 371 website: «Gosuslugi», websites of government bodies, ministries, departments, banks, marketplaces.
You can visit such sites even with a zero balance. True, to do this, you need to activate the option in the personal account of your provider.
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