.срб domain

The Cyrillic internet domain .срб is the second national domain of the Republic of Serbia. It is part of the family of Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) domains, meaning domains whose names are not written in the English alphabet. After the Russian .рф, it is the second internet domain in the world whose names can be registered using the Cyrillic script.

Registration of .срб domain names began on January 27, 2012. Since March 5, 2019, registration under the .срб domain has also been possible using an extended set of Cyrillic letters from the Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Ukrainian, and Montenegrin alphabets.

Why the .СРБ domain?

The .срб domain geographically identifies Serbia as the territory for which the content of the website using the domain is primarily intended. Internet searches are largely based on geolocation, so Google favors websites with a .срб (and .rs) domain and content in Serbian when someone searches for information from Serbia. This means such content is more easily accessible to internet users in Serbia, as well as to users abroad who are interested in a product or service from Serbia. Moreover, Cyrillic is the only official script of the Serbian language, so Google effectively searches for terms in Serbian written in Cyrillic.

The .срб domain signifies the presence of a company on the Serbian market. Choosing a national internet domain affects the perception of website visitors, as it indicates that the company is online in Serbian language and script, with prices expressed in local currency and product or service offerings tailored specifically for Serbia – reflecting local customs and purchasing power, offering discounts and promotions according to local holidays.

.срб is the only internet domain in the world that allows website addresses to be written exactly as they are pronounced. Serbian Cyrillic is one of the most phonetically perfect scripts in the world, and unlike the Latin script, it has no digraphs (lj, nj, dž) or letters with diacritics (č, ć, š, ž). Thanks to the feature of Serbian Cyrillic where each sound corresponds to exactly one letter, .срб domain addresses are unambiguously pronounced exactly as written, which is also very important for voice-based internet searches that are becoming increasingly common.

.срб is the “natural internet home” for content in Serbian language and Cyrillic script, and the use of Cyrillic on the internet (and in everyday life) is crucial for preserving Serbia’s national identity and ethnic characteristics. Cyrillic is a script with a history of over a thousand years, in which much valuable Serbian literature and history has been written, and it is very important for preserving Serbia’s spiritual and cultural heritage. Globalization leads to the extinction of some smaller languages. According to UNESCO, more than 200 languages have already disappeared since 1950, and it is estimated that out of approximately 6,000 languages currently spoken in the world, around 2,500 are endangered. Using one’s native language and script on the internet is a way for many languages to “survive” globalization.