“Users are not getting the message about web hosting benefits and are often confused about what type of vendor to choose, as well as what level of service to sign up for,” says Christina Kasica, senior analyst at Ovum. “We talked to over 5,000 companies in three geographical regions and uncovered some surprising facts about this market.”
In a survey of over 5,000 North American firms, Ovum found that 56% did not have a web site and that only 14% of the ones that did used web hosting services. 75% of these companies spent less than $25,000 a year on web hosting.
“These findings indicate the market is less mature than many people think, and highlight an expectation gap that it will be easy for vendors to stumble into without careful planning,” said Kasica.
Companies in Western Europe have been quicker than their US counterparts to catch on to the benefits of web hosting meaning that the European market has quickly surpassed the US now that rate of web ownership has caught up.
Ovum forecast that the global web hosting market will be worth $46.9 billion by 2006, representing a huge rise from the $10.3 billion which the market is currently said to be worth. Most of this spending will come from the US and Canada and the period of most rapid growth will occur between 2001 and 2002 when the global value of web hosting is predicted to rise by over 60%.
