Internet penetration level in Russia to reach 97% in 2 yrs - Rospechat
MOSCOW. Nov 22 (Interfax) - The level of Internet penetration in Russia will more than double over the next two years to 97%, the head of Rospechat, Russia's federal agency for press and mass communications, Mikhail Seslavinsky said during a meeting with reporters in Moscow.
This year, Seslavinsky said, citing data from the Public Opinion Fund, nearly 60 million people (42%) use the Internet on a monthly basis and 57 million on a daily basis. For 24% of Russians, the Internet is the main source of information, while 70% continue to say television is.
Around 70% of Internet users make use of it for searching out information, while 59% do social-networking, and 53% describe the Internet as their main news source.
Seslavinsky said that similar numbers are expected with RuNet development in 2014-2015. In his view, he said, the growing rapidity of Internet usage in Russia is tied to its growing accessibility. "The Internet is gradually becoming accessible in libraries and educational institutions, and more and more people are going online with mobile devices," he said. "Today, some 21 million people go online with their cellphones, smartphones, and tablets," he said.
This growth is prompting RuNet itself to grow. By now, the chief of the coordinating center for the national Internet domain Andrei Kolesnikov said, the number of .ru domains has increased to 3.5 million from 3.1 million in 2010, and there have 931,000 domain names registered in the .rf domain. He said he thinks there could be one million in the .rf domain early next year.
Kolesnikov noted that the increase in the number of domain names on RuNet is insufficient. "We overtook Germany as to the number of Internet users in September," he said. "But there are in Germany fourteen million registered domains."