The top-level domain (TLD) you have cited, XN—P1ACF, corresponds to the Punycode representation for the Russian .рф TLD. Punycode is a system that’s typically used for representing domain names that are made up of Unicode characters not within the standard ASCII range.
History & Purpose of XN—P1ACF (“.рф”):
The .рф (XN—P1ACF) TLD was introduced by The Coordination Center for TLD RU in 2010, which is the registry operator for .ru and .рф. The XN—P1ACF TLD (or .рф, in its more common Russian Cyrillic representation), stands for “RF” in Latin, which translates to “Russian Federation”. This top-level domain has been created and reserved especially for websites that are in the Russian language and use the Cyrillic script.
Usage of XN—P1ACF:
TLD .рф became popular rapidly as it was widely adopted by Russian users. According to statistics from The Coordination Center for TLD RU, over 900,000 .рф domains were registered in the first year of operation alone. As of 2021, .рф is the most popular national script TLD with more than 1.1 million registered names. This illustrates the value and importance of having TLDs that cater to non-Latin scripts and languages, recognizing the diversity of internet users.
Examples of XN—P1ACF (“.рф”):
A good example of a .рф domain is the official website of the President of Russia (президент.рф), which uses the .рф TLD and is fully written in the Russian language.
Sources:
The main information about the XN—P1ACF TLD can be found on the official website of The Coordination Center for TLD RU (cctld.ru), ICANN’s root zone database (iana.org/domains/root/db), and World Intellectual Property Organization’s CENTR report on IDN TLDs.
In conclusion, XN—P1ACF is a top-level domain representing “.рф“—a country-specific TLD for the Russian Federation—which supports websites using the Cyrillic alphabet. Its introduction has been pivotal in enabling non-Latin languages to have their unique space on the internet, thus broadening digital inclusion.
Reference:
1. The Coordination Center for TLD RU website – https://cctld.ru/
2. ICANN’s root zone database – https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db
3. WIPO’s CENTR report on IDN TLDs.
