By Andrey Anufriev
He notes that just over half are registered by legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, with individuals owning 44 percent. The 100,000th domain should be registered by spring.
Most of the domains are registered by Belarusian entities, with approximately 11 percent belonging to foreign residents — mostly from Germany, the USA and Russia. About 43 percent of domains were registered in 2012 and around 19 percent have existed since 2011 plus 14 percent since 2010. “Last year saw more activity in the registration of domain names, which may be linked to the simplification of registration procedures,” Mr. Povalishev stresses. “You can now register for a .by domain in the same way as in any other zone.”
All two-letter domain names with .by have already been taken, with two character domains (combining letter and number) remaining greatly sought after. Single-letter domains are not yet permitted notes Mr. Povalishev. “If it’s decided to allow them, they should be put up for auction or have specific requirements for their registration.” If a domain name’s period of registration expires, it can be put up for charity auction, once the owner has been given 30 days for the opportunity to renew. “Previously, the most interesting domain names were intercepted illegally — albeit for a matter of seconds. To prevent this from happening, auctions are held,” he tells us. Four stages of charity auctions have been held already, with profits donated to children’s homes.
