Domain price is a matter of domain security

A roundtable discussion on the development of the .RU and .РФ TLD market has taken place at the Russian Ministry of Communications and Mass Media.

On May 12, the ministry’s press center hosted a roundtable meeting on the current state of and prospects for the development of the .RU and .РФ TLDs and the tasks facing the .RU/.РФ registration system. The event was organized by the Coordination Center for TLD RU/РФ in cooperation with the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media.

The participants considered the proposed increase in .RU and .РФ TLD prices and its potential effects on the market. The pricing issue came up because additional allocations are needed to develop the address space of the Russian segment of the internet.

Alexei Platonov, General Director of the Technical Center for the Internet, stressed that a TLD price is not just a matter of value, but also of security. “A giveaway price enables asocial elements to create illegal resources in a TLD and post harmful content. Hence, the need for a proper price, which, on top of everything else, would make it possible to invest both in the development of TLD infrastructure and enhancing its security. Moreover, virtually all major registries support projects aimed at promoting the development of the internet as a whole, and I believe that the Coordination Center should follow suit,” Platonov said during the meeting.

Andrei Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center for TLD RU/РФ, reminded the participants that the TLD .RU price has not changed for ten years, although inflation over the same period has exceeded 120 percent. The operating costs of ensuring the safe, stable and reliable functioning of internet infrastructure require higher revenues. In addition, the Coordination Center’s development plan includes several priority projects, including the creation of a reserve registry in order to make the addressing system more reliable.

Coordination Center Deputy Director Irina Danelia spoke about TLD pricing practices in other countries. For example, in 2015−2016, several European TLDs raised retail prices, but no market contraction followed. A price increase in TLD .SE (Sweden), on the contrary, had a positive effect, resulting in a higher number of registered domain name extensions.

MSK-IX General Director Yelena Voronina spoke about the company’s efforts to improve the domain name registration system and expand the DNS network. She also discussed in detail a project to deploy DNS nodes in TLDs with localized spots of Russian-language content, primarily in CIS member states.