Nicom-Media (nicom-media.ru) was the website of a Nizhny Novgorod firm that traded in computers, components, office equipment and mobile phones. The address was already listed in the Nizhny Novgorod website directory — the nn.ru rubricator — in the autumn of 2000, with a check date of 11 August 2000 and the note “Working”[2]; in 2007 the home page carried the office address: “Nizhny Novgorod, Oboznyi pr., bldg 1, office 3”[10]. The web archive made its first capture of the home page on 23 February 2001[1], and the last capture with content of its own is dated 17 May 2014[13].

Price lists and a showroom: 2001

In February 2001 the site's menu fitted into four items — “News”, “About the firm”, “Prices”, “Mobile phones” — plus a “Download” section with three price lists: “Computers”, “Multimedia”, “Mobile phones”[1]. Two addresses were given for contact: the general vad@sandy.ru and the technical support address eugenelea@mail.ru, to which visitors were invited to send “all complaints and suggestions concerning the operation of the site”[1]. Game CDs were ordered by telephone at 33-75-10 from Olga Polyakova[1].

The home page was taken up by a news feed with prices in dollars: a Pentium III 1000 MHz FCPGA BOX — 327 dollars, a Pentium IV 1400E bundled with two 64 MB RDRAM modules — 597, a Philips 105S20 monitor with a 15-inch diagonal — 167, the 19-inch 109P10 — 592, a 15-inch Philips TFT LCD — 1055; a blank Memorex CDR 12x in a plastic case cost 18 roubles, and suede pouches for the Ericsson A1018 and the Nokia 3310 — 100 roubles[1]. On 14 January 2001 the firm announced that it had become “an official reseller of the D-Link company”, with orders placed from a warehouse in Moscow, and two days later promised to update its price lists “3-4 times a week”[1]. Trade was not conducted over the network alone: the Philips monitors, the home page reported, “you can see in operation in our showroom”[1].

Online store: 2007–2012

By August 2007 the site was called “Nicom-Media :: Laptops, computers, office equipment”, the header carried two telephone numbers — 430-68-81 and 430-68-82 — and the address on Oboznyi[10]. Beside them sat a login form with the fields “login”, “password” and “code” and the link “Send a request for access”[10]. The store's catalogue ran to about three dozen sections, from “Laptops” and “GPS receivers and navigation” to “Banking equipment”, “PDAs”, “Servers, platforms and terminals” and “TV/FM tuners”[10]. Prices were converted at an in-house rate for the conventional unit, displayed in the corner of the page: “1 c.u. = 26.5 as of 02.08.07”[10]. The news of that summer placed side by side “Opening hours over the May holidays”, “How to find us”, “ADMINISTRATOR WANTED!”, “ATTENTION!!! SALE!!!” and “The shop is closing”[10]. At the bottom stood the developer's credit — the studio “Web Mekhanika” (Web Mechanics)[10].

By 2012 the title had changed to “Laptops, computers, digital equipments, office equipment in Nizhny Novgorod” (the grammatical slip is in the original), and the catalogue had grown to four dozen sections, including “Household appliances”, “Furniture, retail equipment”, “XEROX promotional products”, “Telephony, faxes, mini-PBXs”, “Used equipment” and “Clearance = offer your own price”[11]. The capture of 15 June 2012 betrays neglect: the only news item of its own concerns the opening hours on 6-8 March, while the conventional-unit rate is given as of 14 April 2011 (“1 c.u. = 32.45”)[11]. Reprinted hardware reviews took the place of news, and the bottom edge of the page was given over to unrelated links — “website promotion”, “disposal of industrial waste”, “daikin air conditioners”, “wedding arrangements st petersburg”[11].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

In the Counter.nn.ru rating on 2 December 2000, “Nicom Media” stood eighteenth in the “Firms (Enterprises)” section: counter 3329, rating 47.71, 14 hits[3]. The section was large — the page-by-page navigation ran as far as line 180[3]. The firm described itself there as follows: “Sale of computers and components at very low prices. Sale of office equipment. Sale of the latest models of mobile phones — low prices. Game CDs”[3].

In the nn.ru rubricator the site was entered in three categories at once: “Trade in computers and office equipment” (rating 365 in June 2002)[4], “Cartridges and other consumables” (402)[5] and “Sale of telephones ( including mobile ) and communications equipment” (402)[6] — with the same catalogue description in each: “Everything for the computer! Computers and components, office equipment. New models of mobile phones”[4]. In the “The very best” summary of 25 April 2002 the site took fifth place by the number of click-throughs from the rubricator — 772 click-throughs at a rating of 244.04, between “Nizhegorodskaya Sotovaya Svyaz” (Nizhny Novgorod Cellular Communications, 819) and “BeeLine” (685)[7]. By November 2003 its rating in the computer trade category had risen to 526, with “Aprel-Servis” (April Service) alongside at 564[8]. This was a solid middling level for a local trading site; how the rating was calculated and who stood next to it is examined in the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating. The site does not appear in the results of the 2004 Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote[9].

How it closed

Between 2012 and 2013 the store vanished from the address. On 2 June 2013 the address opened an “IT magazine | reviews of PCs, laptops and more” with the sections “Home”, “Video”, “Company catalogue”, “About the site” and a menu of the categories “Android”, “Apple”, “Games”, “Internet”, “Components”, “Manufacturer news”, “Laptops”, “Tablets”, “Miscellaneous”, “Software”, “Phones”[12]. The former name survived only in the credit at the bottom: “Nicom-Media 2012 © All rights reserved”[12]. All the posts were published from the admin account, and there was nothing of Nizhny Novgorod in them[12]. By May 2014 the content had drifted apart completely: alongside the hardware reviews stood the pieces “The influence of a tattoo on a person's life” and “What to expect in the 40th week of pregnancy” and an advertising item about a gambling site, while the last dated publication went back to 28 June 2013 — almost a year before the capture itself[13].

The capture of 23 January 2025 found a standard registrar page at the address: “Nicom-media.ru. The site is under development”, an offer to order hosting and website creation, and the line “The domain is registered through i7.RU”[14]. A probe taken while the inventory of dead Nizhny Novgorod websites was being compiled no longer found the domain. The inventory warns, however, that the later pages are signed in Latin script (“Nicom-media.ru”), whereas the firm's site went by the Cyrillic name “Ником-медиа”, and the owner of the address in its final years may already have been a different one.

Encyclopedia study: Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating. See also: Nizhny Novgorod Internet.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — nn.ru rubricator, “Firms (Enterprises) : Computers and office equipment”, 2000 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — counter.nn.ru rating, “Firms (Enterprises)” section, 2000 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — nn.ru rubricator, “Trade in computers and office equipment” category, 2002 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — nn.ru rubricator, “Cartridges and other consumables” category, 2002 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — nn.ru rubricator, “Sale of telephones (including mobile) and communications equipment” category, 2002 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — nn.ru rubricator, “The very best” section, 2002 (archive)
  8. web.archive.org — nn.ru rubricator, “Trade in computers and office equipment” category, 2003 (archive)
  9. web.archive.org — Results of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, 2004 (archive)
  10. web.archive.org — Home page, 2007 (archive)
  11. web.archive.org — Home page, 2012 (archive)
  12. web.archive.org — Home page, 2013 (archive)
  13. web.archive.org — Home page, 2014 (archive)
  14. web.archive.org — Page on the domain, January 2025 (archive)