Translated material
Victor Zakharchenko. Ukrainian Internet
Ukrainian Internet
Victor Zakharchenko
Publication date: May 29, 2001
Victor Zakharchenko
Publication date: May 29, 2001
Fate has decreed that everything that happens in Ukraine is always viewed through the prism of its eastern neighbor. Such an aspect of the life of a sovereign Ukrainian state as the Internet is no exception. I do not agree with those who claim that UaNet (let me use this abbreviation) is a crooked mirror image of Runet, but it is stupid to downplay the role of the latter in the development of the Ukrainian network.
The network is penetrating deeper into the life of Ukraine. New capital is gradually coming here, original projects are appearing (at least the “ Miss Internet Ukraine ” competition is worth it). The Internet is increasingly used for advertising and election campaigns. The introduction of the Internet into education is in full swing: a state program for the Internetization of Ukrainian schools has already been developed.
The .ua domain was officially registered in December 1992. Many years of lessons and bumps have passed. The Ukrainian segment of the network today is still going through much of what for Russians has long been the bitter experience of the past. But with the big shots, valuable developments are also adopted. In general, it is very difficult to find the border separating Runet and its Ukrainian counterpart. These two subnetworks intersect each other, forming an organic connection. Although the role of the younger one is firmly entrenched in UaNet (some will read it - forever).
After all, if the average annual growth rate of the Internet in the world is 50-55%, then the figure for its Ukrainian segment remains at 40%. However, Ukrainians do not despair, but plan to independently develop the network. This is also stated in the Decree of the President of Ukraine “On measures to develop the national component of the global Internet Information Network and ensure wide access to this network in Ukraine,” signed by Leonid Kuchma on July 31, 2000.
It is not surprising that the vast majority of Ukrainian resources use Russian as the main language. "Russian Journal" is not a place for political discussion of the position of the Russian language in the life of Ukraine, but in UaNet its monopoly is unshakable. At best, government resources offer visitors a choice between the Russian and Ukrainian versions; sometimes an English version is also added. Popular resources, as a rule, appear before the eyes of visitors exclusively in the Russian version. That is why sometimes Russian Internet users have no idea about the foreign origin of a resource, as is the case with the popular computer information library " Infocity ".
The provider market in Ukraine is very wide and has many levels. In 1999, eight of the largest providers in Ukraine (UkrSat, Golden Telecom, Global Ukraine, Technological Systems, Adamant, Relcom-Ukraine, IP Telecom and UkrNet) initiated the creation of an Internet association and a Ukrainian point Internet traffic exchange (UA-IX). The total capacity of external channels that were used by Ukrainian operators to access foreign information resources in 2000 exceeded 90 Mbit/s. The most developed in terms of providing Internet services are Kyiv (almost 50% of the market), Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov and Odessa regions. The least - Khmelnitsky and Volyn regions. According to experts, the total number of providers today is about 270. While in large cities competition is very high, in the outback Ukrtelecom dominates , which uses regular telephone connections to deliver the Internet to every Ukrainian home. In light of the importance of this provider in the development of the Internet in Ukraine, the process of privatization of Ukrtelecom has a great resonance in the media.
If we look at statistical data about users, what is noteworthy here is the pronounced predominance (or better said, advancement) of men - 90%. The total number of regular users is within 300 thousand, another 150 thousand use Internet services from time to time. The greatest increase in the number of users, as well as resources, by the way, dates back to 1999. The preferences of Ukrainian non-Tomans, according to data from Ukrainian search engines, are distributed in the following ratio:
- Regions on average - about 23%;
- Business/Production + Finance - about 26%;
- Education - about 13%;
- Internet/Computers - about 10%;
- Sex/Dating - about 8%;
- Hobbies/Entertainment - about 9%;
- Tourism/Overseas - about 5%.
As a rule, the majority of visits are to Russian Internet projects, which once again indicates the role of Runet in the lives of Ukrainian users.
Ukrainian resources, or rather their quantitative characteristics, look something like this. At the beginning of September 2000, there were about 32 thousand access nodes operating in Ukraine; about 11 thousand domains were registered in the .ua zone; information resources were hosted on more than 6 thousand Web servers. The most common information on the Ukrainian part of the Internet today is information about the activities of business entities - 47%, information and reference resources - 16.6%, entertainment information - 14.8%, information about the activities of research institutions, educational institutions of varying degrees accreditation - 4.4%. 6% of servers host electronic versions of mass media. Information about the activities of public authorities and government organizations is located on 1.3% of servers. As you can see, the percentage of entertainment resources is surprisingly low - all Ukrainian surfers go to sites ending in .ru in search of entertainment.
Let's try to add some specificity to these dry numbers by talking about the most prominent representatives of UaNet.
Every self-respecting nation should be represented on the Internet by portals. In Ukraine, this ringing word is sometimes used as a cover for companies with very poorly developed infrastructure, hoping to lure potential investors in this way. One that deserves attention should be called META-Ukraine . This Kharkov portal became the first serious search engine and today provides those interested with a wide variety of information about UaNet resources. project The Avanport is still relatively young, but has already won the hearts of users with the largest employment server in Ukraine. The clearest and most structured information about regional resources is provided by UaPortal - the most serious catalogue. Want more portals? There is a joke: a real portal has two distinctive features: 1) it provides a search option, 2) it does not call itself a portal. One of the most powerful search engines in terms of the number of hits is " PING ", which recently celebrated the third anniversary of its activity. This resource rightfully bears the title of the most popular rating of UaNet sites, on which every serious Ukrainian resource should register. It is a pity that the search engine often does not find anything similar to what is desired. At www.ukrop.com the most popular of the Ukrainian-language portals is located. It is here that surfers prefer to look for sites in the Ukrainian language. The search engine on http://www.atlasua.net/ is considered one of the most promising, judging at least by the advertising hype. If you are interested in sites of the Western region of Ukraine (we'll talk about them separately), then you won't find anything better than " Nativity Scene ". In general, analyzing the abilities of Ukrainian search engines, it should be admitted that there is no serious alternative to "META" yet. However, good results are shown by a young, even young , a joint Ukrainian-Russian-American (guess whose money) project www.360.com.ua , providing meta search.
If a country has the Internet, then journalists should write about it, and on the Internet itself too. We will not list all kinds of information resources (websites of newspapers, TV channels, radio stations, online media), but will only point out the best of them based on the results of 2000. The best magazine to write about the Internet is probably Computer Review . The magazine, also available in print, provides a wide variety of information about the latest technologies (they recently changed their design and became even cooler) and the Internet. Another publication that matches it is “ CHIP ,” which specializes in ratings and analysis of all kinds of computer internals. The best, from my point of view, journalist writing about the Internet is Alexander Moskaluk, author of the above-mentioned Computer Review and the popular Russian publication Internet World. Attention should also be paid to the new InternetUA project - a print and online magazine entirely dedicated to the Internet.
But not all network resources praise the achievements of the Ukrainian Internet. Thus, on the website “ Notes on Life ,” the author disparages everything Ukrainian in the face of the grandiose achievements of the Runet, defining for himself the role of a great judge. In a democratic society, of course, this is quite possible.
By the way, about democracy. Recently, the case of Georgy Gongadze, the founder of the network information project " Ukrainian Truth ", has occupied a prominent place in the political life of Ukraine. The story of the mysterious murder of a journalist raised the popularity rating of the resource to unprecedented heights. Today, many assess the importance of the materials of this online publication no less than the role of Radio Liberty in Soviet times. We also note the professionalism and efficiency with which the information on the information project of the Inter television channel is updated . Another broadcasting giant "1+1" quickly bought itself a domain in the .tv zone, and is now located on www.1plus1.tv .
Since we are talking about various media, we should also mention the online representation of the most popular in Ukraine “ Gala Radio ”. Here, in addition to news, there are also all the attributes of an entertainment portal. Gala holds the championship in UaNet among chats and search engines for mp3 files.
They couldn’t ignore the issue of employment on the Ukrainian Internet. As usual, on the presented servers you will find extensive databases of vacancies and resumes, where you can find something that interests you. Such servers are located here: ajob.com.ua , www.ukrjob.net , jobs.com.ua , rabota.com.ua , job.avanport.com , www.rabota.kharkov.ua .
But the Ukrainian surfer does not live by work alone. If you work, rest, although choosing a place to rest is very difficult. If you are an ardent patriot and do not want to look towards Russian resources, then you will have to be content with their Ukrainian counterparts. Anecdotes, aphorisms, jokes, pictures - you can find all this on the websites ATAS , UkroAska , Gala-dating , Damn lumpy! , Chat Bizzare , KHOKHMA . We will not dwell on them in detail; they are all identical to a certain extent and built according to well-known templates.
Standing apart here is the website of Dynamo Kiev from Shurik , which has become a real Mecca for fans of this super team. The initially unprofessional resource reached the top of the ratings thanks to its ease of presentation and, of course, relevance. By the way, the official website of the club is many times inferior to Shurik’s project in popularity.
Some people consider shopping in online stores the best form of recreation. They are trying to adopt the best practices of online stores on the website , where they have even introduced their own payment system using hryvnias. The main part of the display case here is occupied by books, but there are also computer peripherals. The most powerful, in my opinion, bookstore on the Internet is “ Bookshop ” - with regular distribution of updated price lists. Although there are services for ordering tickets for concerts and flights, in general the market for online services is still poorly developed, the objective reason for which is the low solvency of Ukrainian Internet users.
This picture is caused by the real situation in the country, economic and political. When the question of the latter is raised, many recall the nationalist sentiments of the Western Ukrainian regions. How did this affect UaNet? Indeed, in UaNet you can find a dozen resources, created, as a rule, in Lvov or Ternopol, where it is clearly written who needs to be driven out of Ukraine with a filthy broom. There are also calmer pages aimed at cultivating the patriotic spirit. Take a look at the page of the youth organization " Strikha " and you will understand what I'm talking about.
What are the features of the western segment of UNet? Firstly, it is less developed. After the surge of 1999, the activity of site makers has clearly dropped, and now they are sculpting rosy pictures about the beautiful Ukrainian nature and culture, demonstrating their ability to work with graphics and completely forgetting about content. Secondly, there is not a single serious catalog of resources, all of them are just pieces. We have to admit that in the Western region it has not yet been possible to secure at least one serious UaNet outpost. One good thing is that the cities are beautifully presented. After all, there is something to show both Lvov and Ivano-Frankivsk . And the main difference from the eastern Ukrainian part is the order of linguistic presentation of resources. If in the East the order of resource languages is usually “Russian-English-Ukrainian”, then here everything is the other way around - “Ukrainian-English-Russian”.
It is obvious that today UaNet has all the categories of sites necessary to be considered a full-fledged segment of the global network community. Some of them leave much to be desired - both from a technical point of view and in terms of content - others are clearly imitative. But the third ones, based on the best world experience, determine the face of the Ukrainian Internet and allow me, as a true patriot, to look optimistically into the E-future. Ukraine has so far only designated its place in the World Wide Web, and only time will tell what this place will be like.