(Zangief image courtesy of Street Fighter)

Today, Russian Internet Week opened in the Exhibition Center of Moscow. Starring is the first Cyrillic extension .РФ, which stands for .RF or Russian Federation.

Russia is a country of intense nationalism, where .ru is the current TLD leader in domain registrations rather than .com.  Russian language nationalism is so rampant that in August 2008, the Russian search engine leader, Yandex, switched its logo to Cyrillic.

Moreover, Russian Federation President, Dmitry Medvedev, imagines Russian as becoming a national language and sees .РФ as an important step towards that lofty goal.  Medvedev is a self-proclaimed techie and is focusing much of his attention on the .РФ launch.  Medvedev pridefully said of the .РФ extension:  ” It is a symbol of the importance of the Russian language …”

Between nationalism, overwhelming government support, and the fact that the leading Russian extension (.ru) doesn’t support IDNs, .РФ has a good chance of being the .com equivalent in Russia.

There are negatives to .РФ as well.  It has already been reported on IDNDemystified and elsewhere that .РФ will be heavily regulated.  Many city domain names as well as other terms will be reserved for governmental use from the get-go.   The initial registration prices were in the ballpark of $300,000 per domain, decidedly not domainer friendly.  And the perpetual challenger is IDN.com and if aliasing goes according to plan, perhaps IDN.ком as well.

****Update: In response to questions, April 2010 is the current target for the .РФ sunrise period to commence.

Arabic domainers are excited about the newly announced .IDN extension, which is .امارات (.emarat).  The release is planned for the second quarter of 2010.  The UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority will be managing this release. The director general of the TRA urged the use of this .IDN as he appealed to Arabic users’ nationalism, “We encourage all companies and entities in the UAE to register for .ae and .emarat as it represents their local business identity and brings their country pride.”

The Arabic speaking (and searching) demographic has been a frustrating one as internet usage in Arab speaking countries is under 25%.  Though it is a very promising population as internet usage is exploding at a 1,176.8 % growth rate.  (See link).  Arabic IDNs are cheap now but for a reason.  As Arabic users as a whole haven’t begun using the Internet, the logic goes that they are not tied to .com’s (as they only started using the Internet recently), and they can be swayed to use new IDN.IDNs such as .امارات (.emarat).

Given the lack of IDN.com familiarity and loyalty, the Arabic market is one of high-risk, high-reward and new IDN.IDN owners could reap the rewards.

*On a policy note, NIC.AE has embarassed itself with the discriminatory practice of letting anyone register .ae domains except for Israeli citizens or entities. (See link).  Hopefuly, the TRA will be more open-minded.

(Image courtesy of the Phoenician and Flickr)

Goal setting involves a combination of predicting the future and creating it.  Where will I be, and where will the world be in 5 years, if all continues along the same trajectory?  Given the predicted result, what changes should I make in the here and now?

All signs are pointing towards an internationalized Internet.  ICANN’s forthcoming release of IDN.IDNs is a game changer that will boost the visibility and value of all IDNs.  In 5 years, $800 IDNs may easily be worth $40,000.  For those seasoned veterans sitting on the sidelines and looking at your watches as you hold large IDN portfolios, remember that you can change and speed up the course of history.  Step out of the shadows, educate others, go to T.R.A.F.F.I.C. and you can be a catalyst for IDN awareness.  Ultimately, your actions can only expedite the increase in IDN values.  One last preachy point, there is plenty of opportunity in the IDN space so you should stop fearing that others will swarm in before you get yours.

With IDN.IDN releases just around the corner, now is also a good time to consider what you will hold out for, and to what extent you will liquidate part of your portfolio and diversify in both IDN.coms and new IDN.IDNs, which is the course of action I recommend.

Lastly, if you are like many IDN porfolio owners I know, your last question will be will you even want to retire or will you get bored?  When the time comes, I would recommend that you look into Arizona vacation homes like the above (the Phoenician is a personal favorite).  Premature?  Maybe.  But you need something to keep you going when sorting through IDNTools droplists.

There are many influential domainers who are uneducated about IDNs and put them down.  Why?  

1. Most influential domainers made their money by buying English .com’s and since that is what worked for them, they narrowly propose sticking to this tried and tested method.  Remember, only recently did influential domainers start to accept ccTLDs and once upon a time English .com’s were considered speculative investments.

2.  From a US-centeric approach it is hard for some  to realize that there are many non-English internet users who type and post in their own language.  The logical progression is that these foreign users will register domains in their own languages as well.

There is risk in IDNs.  Mainly in not knowing what IDN extensions could become the new .com.  But this is a risk worth monitoring, taking, and hedging by regging multiple IDN extensions.

Copernicus believed the opposite of the masses.  When it was supposedly common knowledge that the Earth was the center of the universe, Copernicus had the guts to say that it was the Sun, and he had the research to back it.

If you missed out on the domain gold rush of the 1990s, don’t resign yourself to the common wisdom of the day that you should collect “niche” four and five word names.  There is still great opportunity.

Many countries have not yet realized the unlimited value of premium domains.  As a result, foreign language domains are often searched for, are brandable and are cheap.  Domain names that use foreign characters are called IDNs and they are the new gold rush.

Here are some ignorant reasons that lead people to avoid IDNs:

-The major players aren’t doing it: Though big name celebrity domainers aren’t registering IDNs, you can’t follow the herd and should think for yourself.  Think of any great minds and whether they listened to the prevailing logic of their time.  For the full Copernicus story, check the link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernicus).

-People supposedly won’t want to type a domain name in one language and the extension in another.  Guess what?  They do.

The traffic stats are there (sometimes upwards of 10,000 hits a month for a handreg).  In many cases, a .com ending is actually seen as fashionable and western.  In addition, Verisign will likely alias (or forward) .com IDN names to forthcoming IDN extensions so that owners of IDN.com will get a free corresponding IDN.IDN.

-A bunch of new .IDN extensions are coming out soon (such as .РФ) and it is too hard to predict which extension will be the leading .com equivalent.  It is true that the IDN industry will be fragmented by multiple extensions but you should hedge your bets with various extensions rather than avoid premium IDNs altogether.

-It will take some countries years to fully recognize the value of domain names.  So what?  Have patience and you will be rewarded.