Web Hosting and Development: Big Numbers
Staff -- Graphic Arts Online, 11/1/2000
This year, over $22 billion will be spent by businesses to establish and maintain an on-line presence, according to a study just released by ActivMediaResearch, a market research group located in Peterborough, N.H.
This translates to 17% of the $132 billion in e-commerce revenues currently being generated, and is expected to help generate trillions of dollars in the near future, according to Harry Wolhandler, vice president of market research for the firm.
"The technological barriers to entry are declining for new businesses; e-commerce services are broadly available, and connections to the back-stage banking systems are no longer a traumatic experience," says Wolhandler. "Further, skills are improving among employees and contractors alike, creating professional Web design teams to integrate many aspects of the challenge.
"Consultants handle corporate structure issues, designers translate ideas into a Web experience, programmers add functionality, and systems engineers handle the challenges of front-stage and back-stage integration, hosting services, data farms, and security.
"All of these professionals can gain insights from the data contained in this detailed study."
Key findings from the study conclude:
- Investment profiles, hosting, and site design decisions reveal five prototypical site designs in broad use on line. The first four types are "selling" sites geared toward customer relationships based on product acquisition and service delivery. The final type (ad-oriented) refers to on-line content models.
- Nearly half of all development dollars will be spent by business-to-business (B2B) vendors, reflecting both scale of B2B Web sites and substantial investments required to connect front-stage Web presentations to back-stage businesses.
