Russian Internet

Having been asked recently "Is there Internet in Russia?", I'd like to put together this basic info on RuNet = Russian Internet.

• The Russian language is the sixth most widely spoken language in the world, following Mandarin, English, Hindi/Urdu, Arabic and Spanish. It is also one of the United Nations' six main languages. (Reuters Press Agency)
  
  
• Runet to be populated by 40 million users, or 28 percent of the population. Russian sites do $3 billion in annual transactions. (Russian Internet Forum 2008)
  
  
• Russia ranks 12th in the number of domain names ( .ru) in the world, having reached one million in September 2007, and it is expected to reach two million at the beginning of 2009. ( ICT Russia)
  
  
• Russian-language online advertising is expected to grow by about 50% each year - reaching $1 billion by the end of the decade. (Russia Today)
  
  
• In February 2008, 47.4% of all searches in Russia were conducted on Yandex.ru , followed by Russian Google (31.2%), Rambler.ru (9.7%), Mail.ru (7%), Russian Yahoo! (1.3%), AOL (1.1%), and Microsoft (0.6%), says a new study of Russian Internet usage. (comScore.com)
  
  
• Russia is expected to become the second largest Internet market in Europe by the end 2008 with online advertising spending forecasted to double in 2008. (comScore.com)
  
  
• Top online advertisers comprised the following industries:
  1) Mobile communications - Beeline, Megafon, MTS (MTSC)
  2) Automotive - Nissan (NSANY), Toyota (TM), Peugeot, Volvo
  3) Mobile phones - Nokia (NOK)
  4) Consumer goods - Wrigley (WWY), Procter & Gamble (PG)
  5) Technology - Intel (INTC), IBM (IBM), Microsoft (MSFT)
  6) Telecommunications - Comstar
  7) Retail - Eldorado, M-Video, Evroset, Technosila
  8) Financial services - Citibank (C), Maxwell (MXWL)