Hi,

Do you know where I could find some links on the size of the web hosting market, and the estimate in 2, 3 years ? This would be for a bussiness plan.

All the information I could find was quite old (1999, 2000).

Thank you

I've seen several reputable companies sell reports but they are expensive... usually over $500 each (sometimes up to $2500 per report!)

Don't know how much the market data is worth to you, and how detailed you need the data to be.

Check out the report below... only $150 at Amazon.com

Exploring the Web-Hosting Services Marketplace: Forecasts and Assumptions, 2000-2004 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005R90M/qid=1031696866/sr=1-10/ref=sr_1_10/102-6364226-3530563?v=glance&s=books)

Hmm..the PDF seemed it was published in 1999 ?


I just want to get an estimate of the current North American market, maybe about July, August 2002, and a 1, 5 year forecast.
A breakdown into different services would be nice too...Shared hosting, dedicated server, resellers, etc.

Unfortunately some of these studies were done in year 2000, and the market has changed tremendously since. In this business things can change very fast...Bankrupcies, Mergers, New companies, etc. So it wouldnt worth spending more than $50 for a current report.

regards

Here is some research from various sources

Ovum
- Predicts growth from $10.3 Billion 2001 to $46.9 Billion 2006
- Research over 5000 companies showed only 44% had a web site with a lot of larger companies doing hosting in-house. Over 60% of these 5000 were unable to support ecommerce from their web sites = a drive to move to external hosting. This segment of the market is not really the same market as WHT hosts.

International Data Corp
- $18.9 Billion by 2003 - but this estimate was made in 1999

Forrester
- $19.8 Billion by 2003 - Again done end 1999

Domain name growth - bi-annual growth of 17% - total domains registered by 2006 over half a billion.

Most of the research seems to focus on commercial use of web hosting & not so much on the mom & pop use of hosting.

But - regardless of the accuracy of estimates - the market is expanding & is relatively young at the moment.

Personally I find an old saying (by Samuel Clemens AKA Mark Twain) to be true:

"There are three forms of Untruths. Lies, DAMNED Lies, and Statistics"


If you notice (ALL over the tech industry) most of the figures for example, "How many new jobs will be unfilled this year" and things like that, can be traced back to 1999 or 2000!

I wouldnt trust statistics any farther than I could throw them personally. (There are too many ways to massage the numbers and make them mean something else.)

But statistics make nice fodder for business plans, that are usually read by folks that really don't have a clue in most cases.
:D