.SU celebrates 19 years

The .su ccTLD was delegated to the Soviet Union in 1990– just one year before its collapse. Though Russia eventually switched to the .ru suffix three years later, .su is still alive and kickin’. It celebrated its 19th birthday this week.

Today, there are more than 80,000 .su registrations. The extension grew 600% last year, though this growth has slowed down substantially as of late. It is also one of the first IDN extensions, allowing Russians to register domains in their native alphabet. Symbols from another 249 national languages are also supported.

The Soviet Union no longer exists on the map, but still has a place in the Internet age. Alexei Platonov, Director of Russian Institute for Public Networks (RIPN), summed up the extension’s importance quite well:

The .SU ccTLD was not delegated to the Soviet Union (although technically it was so). At that time, when the Soviet Union began to collapse, delegation meant the birth of new Internet community. So in fact, domain SU was like a guide and even a symbol of democratic development,

Source | Domain News