On November 1, 2023, an informational campaign kicked off in Kharkiv, aimed at drawing attention to the city domain kharkiv.ua, proposed for use instead of the russified kharkov.ua.
The «Your Kharkiv» campaign is being conducted with the assistance of the domain zone administrator of Kharkiv, LLC «Coordinator», under the auspices of the administrator of the national domain zone UA, LLC «Hostmaster». It will continue until December 31, 2023, uniting the efforts of Ukrainian registrars in promoting proper Ukrainian domains.
Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, has undergone significant russification not only in the domain zone but in all areas of life. All Ukrainian domain zones with two variants of the city's name show a significant bias toward the Russian analogue, and Kharkiv is no exception.
Comparison:
- kharkiv.ua — 751 domains,
- kharkov.ua — 1930 domains.
The main goal of the campaign is to elevate the status of the Ukrainian-language domain variant — logically, in Ukraine, the Ukrainian language should prevail in all sectors.
To inform Kharkiv residents about this initiative, Cityhost.ua has placed banners in the Kharkiv metro at the University station, urging the selection of correct Ukrainian-language domains for websites.
We have also announced an initiative that not only boosts interest in derussifying domains but helps us gather photo materials for publications in the media and social networks.
To participate in the campaign, one needs to:
- Find our banner with the slogan "There is a difference!" in the Kharkiv metro at the University station.
- Take a good photo of it (phone photos are acceptable).
- Post the photo on your Facebook or Instagram page, tagging our page. We'll find your post through the tag.
Links for tagging:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cityhost.ua
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cityhost.ua/
Everyone who completes these three steps will receive 100 hryvnias on their Cityhost.ua hosting balance. The best photos will be used to illustrate articles in the media and social media posts.
This informational campaign is part of a large-scale movement dedicated to derussifying domains, which began in June 2022 and was initiated personally by the CEO of Cityhost.ua, Oleg Rivtyn, and our team.
One part of this movement was the campaign to promote the capital domain kyiv.ua involving 28 registrars. It showed very positive results—in two months, the domain zone kyiv.ua increased by 60%. Participants created a variety of informative materials, including articles, social media posts, banners, videos, and even memes to inform target audiences.
One significant reason why owners of long-standing sites remain on the kharkov.ua domains is because users consider the process of transitioning to a new domain too complex and resource-intensive. But in reality, it's much simpler. Within the «Kyiv» campaign, we wrote a blog post about how to move a site to the correct domain without losing traffic — the instructions provided are suitable for all mirrored domains, including Kharkiv's. Thanks to this guide, you can easily navigate through the site transfer procedure.
We encourage those contemplating registering a domain for a local Kharkiv site to opt for kharkiv.ua — especially since registering the domain and its first year of use cost only 99 hryvnias.
