Hi all,
I am posting to get your opinion on something: how long do you think the current growth of the web hosting industry will last. For the path few years web hosting demand has been high and there have been many new customers, however,in 2 years do you think it will still be this way. Or will something completely new come along and take place of web pages?

Personally what I think will happen in demand will start to lessen and the number of web hosts will decrease while customers stay basicly the same with ups and down to the growth. Any one agree or disagree with me on this, and what are your opinions? Basicly I need to figure out if once I graduate college I can keep doing what I have been doing for 2 years with web hosting or actually WORK for someone else and no longer be my own boss...grrr

Thanks :-D
Tcoy~

I think the growth rate will drop. Primarly due to .COM failures, which are bursting the great hope for success bubble.

JTY

I don't foresee any drop in the demand. Remember, many people don't even have a computer - but they want one. And once they find out all their friends have a .whatever, they want one of those as well. The US in particular is one the best countries for consumptive action of this type. Given that, there will probably continue to be the same type of consolidation as smaller hosts pack it in.

I should clarify that I was primarly refering to business customers.

Ah - well, even so, especially for smaller businesses, I don't see any downturn. These days, it's almost a given that any business (every business) will have a web site their customers can go to if it's after hours, if they don't want to speak to a live person, etc. And just think - it's not as if they have to spend a fortune on a page and hosting. It's a very small slice of the expense pie that b&m businesses have.

There's also a little country called China starting to com online now. From what I hear they've been stunted for a while due to the govt restrictions on Microsoft. Now Linux is becoming more user friendly, it gives roughly 1 billion people better access to the internet. Well that's not directly 100% factual, but you get the idea. There are huge chunks of the world with little to no access to the net, though it's improving all the time. Google has about a billion of so pages linked - there's over 6 billion people in the world - maths suggested growth is there for a while yet.

And there will ALWAYS be crappy sites, and worse hosts to provide clients who want something better.

Greg Moore
http://www.akashik.net

I think the process would not slow down, BUT there might me no or less revenue left in the business. It would become like the ISP business, a saturation point will be reached! and there will be a shakeout and only the fitest will survive! I might be wrong! :)

I have to agree, Hosting is such a competitive business, I feel like the huge hosts will someday eat us up. They have the financial capital to provide services and advanced support many smaller hosts can not afford, And there very few customers who will stay with a small host even if the service has been good if they see something better come along. Wish this business was more like auto repair, when someone finds a good shop you can expect to continue to recieve your business from them :)

Originally posted by kunal
I think the process would not slow down, BUT there might me no or less revenue left in the business. It would become like the ISP business, a saturation point will be reached! and there will be a shakeout and only the fitest will survive! I might be wrong! :)

Actually, I think you're pretty close to the mark. You've described a typical economic cycle. Demand increases (businesses needing sites) so the supply increases to meet it (hosts) and there is growth up to a point where there is a shakeout and consolidation. This is where a lot of those "promise you anything" hosts will disappear, the ones whose income is based on getting new customers rather than giving proper service to the existing ones.

Those of us who have managed to retain our customer base are more likely to survive.

I don't necessarily agree on the no revenue part as there will still be new businesses every year. The difference is, for the most part, the hosts that survive will likely have higher overall standards and the consumer (business person) will have a greater number of good choices. In other words, the industry as a whole will likely be better than it is now, with all the shoddy and disreputable hosts.

Originally posted by cbaker17
I have to agree, Hosting is such a competitive business, I feel like the huge hosts will someday eat us up. They have the financial capital to provide services and advanced support many smaller hosts can not afford, And there very few customers who will stay with a small host even if the service has been good if they see something better come along. Wish this business was more like auto repair, when someone finds a good shop you can expect to continue to recieve your business from them :)

I agree in part..I think the smaller hosts will be geared more twards the small business client and the casual user...I dont think small hosts will totally go away the one thing that has remained true on the net is clients like personal attention something a giant company cant give them:)

I'm with you on that, Dana. Something cbaker has overlooked is that no one host or type of host is right for everybody. Smaller companies that offer personalized service, and can do things larger companies can't, will still have their place.

Case in point. A couple of weeks (maybe 3) ago, I spoke with a prospective new client referred by an existing one. (He is now no longer prospective). He hadn't seen my web site yet and was asking a few questions. Though he didn't ask directly, one of the things he was concerned about was that I might be too big (hah!) He wanted personalized serice and did not want to be a number at some huge outfit.

He was set up while we were on the phone and transferred his files within hours. I advised him of the nature of some problems he had with his site and he was able to correct them.

He likely wouldn't get that at a big company, and I think he knows it.

Another point is that there are many large companies making their money by giving poor service and reliability, counting on a continual flow of new customers from the advertising. As the public gets more experience and more net-savy I suspect they will be avoiding these big companies and seeking out small to mid-sized ones. Word does get around, now more then ever!

You all are right, I saying I have posted on my office wall is "Its cheaper to keep current customers, then to find new ones" and there are many people out there who want what a small host can provide "personal attention to detail" but a majority or the customer base are more interested in price or features and will flock at a whim when a company comes out with something new! True not always the case, but sadly a majority of the time is the case.

Walmart did the same thing

Let's remember these 'big-name' hosts.

Webhosting.com
Burlee
Interland
*****
Communitech

And let's remember these 'small-name' hosts.

Below $10 Host
WebExpose
JaguarPC
myPHPhost

(and the list goes on and on and on)

Notice the group in which the hosts (generally) seem to give the worst service?

I rest my case.

Originally posted by Tcoy
Hi all,
I am posting to get your opinion on something: how long do you think the current growth of the web hosting industry will last. For the path few years web hosting demand has been high and there have been many new customers, however,in 2 years do you think it will still be this way?

As if this industry is old and just about to top out??? You haven't even seen new customers yet. Not only is every new business going to get on the web, but there are still soooo many existing ones who haven't done it yet.

I am not able to predict the future, but this growth isn't about to even off. Not even close. At least not in the next two years.

There are new applications for the "web" that are being created every day. I can't even begin to list all of the new things you can do via the web which were unimagineable just a few years ago. Any thoghts of it even close to leveling off is VERY shortsighted. You ain't seen nothin' yet baby!!!

agreed
plus don't forget that Internet isn't only all about web pages... A lot of new cool stuff will most likely appear.

Heyas all,

Hmmm, in regards to the level of personalise service,
I think some people have missed the point, and it depends on the target audience. Big Hosting companies such as *****, WEBHOSTING.COM, and a few others, generally target businesses who knows what they are doing and so there's not much demand for them to setup a really good support centre of their own, and whenever there's something "new" on offer, customers are willing to go for it. After all, most of us tends to think that if you want to get ahead on the net, you gotta have to latest technology.. and some people are willing to pay that price. (Btw, ***** outsource their support crew (?), I read that somewhere.. forgot where it is)

And of course, when companies become too big, their level of personalised service are reduced.... you can't have everything =P. Companies who tries usually find that it's too costly. Ie, to offer a really good personalised service (ie, hiring more customer service officers) and at the same time, offering cutting edge technology to their customers (ie, have their own Design centre or BUY the technology from somewhere else).

But of course, when more individuals become more netsavvy, definitely the personalise service will win in the long run.
But the downside is that Big companies can also offer that anytime if their strategic approach changes.

I think Alabanza definitely got one of the best technology, in terms of automation, and definitely they won't sell it =P. If I had it, I wouldn't sell it either, but rather lease it out, just like they have done (until someone offers me extremely Big $$ haha =P. Btw, Is there any other company who Offers this Automated Service???

hmmm.. Personalised service, is what all the big players are looking at right now! For eg most Private ISP's in Bombay, India now give each of there support representatives access to a database which gives the rep, access to all the info he/she needs abt any customer: the times he called, the nature of his complaint, how it was solved etc etc. So the big players would be able to provide custom services to some extent. But yes, they wont be able to ask you how your son, Sunil, was doing after the Flu he got last week! :)

I blindly going into this biz LOL

Originally posted by DynastyHost
I blindly going into this biz LOL

Sometimes it's better that way *wink*

Yeah, otherwise you'd go screaming into the night, never to return. :)

Speaking from experience Annette? :D (j/k)

Well, only last night. :)

I suppose I'm rather cranky today since I didn't get much sleep last night - after everything came back up and we emailed a couple of people, I snuck off and grabbed a couple hours of sleep before getting back up and heading out to work. Day before that...well, it's just been a couple of really long days (18h, 19h, 22h yesterday, etc.).

My immediate outlook on the future? Sleep. :)

Software can even remember to ask you how your son, Sunil, was doing after the Flu he got last week. But software cannot make a company care about YOU. After all, who is going to care more about you, a company were you are 1 account out of 1,000,000, or one were you are 1 out of 500 or even 100? That's not to say a big company doesn't care, but even if they do, there will always be people that don't believe the big company is going to care.

And some people would be VERY offended if they knew Sunil's flu was in your database ;)

Aren't I glad I have holidays next week to get some sleep... No, hang on, I'm back to work after annual leave. Shoot!! :(

CFoxHost... Agreed! :)