A wave of Web 2.0 companies have come to market offering function-specific hosted services at no charge to the consumer, and they are a clear threat to the shared hosting market. Do you really need a personal website if you are on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/)? Do you need a website to share photos with your family when there is Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/)? Do you need a hosting account for offsite data storage if there are services like Box.net (http://box.net/)? As a web host, should your strategy be to move up the value stream to begin to offer consumer-focused services beyond just bare bones shared hosting accounts? Or should you simply exit the mass market to focus on the needs of businesses, IT departments, and more sophisticated clients?
At HostingCon 2009, you can walk away with hard facts and an actionable strategy. Philbert Shih from Tier1 Research (http://www.t1r.com/) will be presenting his firm’s research findings in the mass market space, as well as other segments of the hosting industry. In the session “Following the Web Hosting Trends (http://www.hostingcon.com/2009/sessions/?track=Emerging%20Trends#period_11)“, Phil will review the current and emerging trends. You will learn what it will take to be competitive, improve your product line, and stay ahead of the competition. And you will walk away with ideas you can implement today.
Join us at HostingCon 2009 (https://www.hostingcon.com/2009/attend/register/) to learn how to compete and thrive in a changing environment.

I still feel that there is a strong need for web hosting regardless of social Facebook-type web sites and services.

Cool talk idea, though.

-mike

My take on it is this:

Fads and trends come and go. The social media services are here one day and could be gone the next.. as we've all seen before. While the same could be said for certain "webhosts", shared hosting I feel will continue to exist and evolve.