Internet Survey Shows ‘Missed Opportunities’ By UK Companies

The UK’s largest companies do not utilise the internet effectively for business, according to a new report from Fletcher Research.

The UK Internet Survey February 1998, the first ever systematic research of 250 prominent commercial UK websites, reveals that only 35% of companies use their websites to generate revenue, with the remaining 65% using them solely for communication purposes.

Of the sites which do generate revenue, 8% rely on subscriptions, 45% on online shopping, 52% on advertising and 19% on hosting (whereby companies charge other organisations for gaining an online presence within an umbrella site).

The summary also says that many sites only give corporate information and many are “glorified annual reports online” with little or no interactivity. It also criticises the way many websites concentrate totally on a consumer audience while business products and services have some of the least developed sites. This is despite the fact that most UK users access the internet from work and use it for work-orientated tasks.

Fletcher Research: 0171 565 8156