I have read somewhere that hosting market are going down on christmas and going up again just after new year.
It is true?
Any opinion from this field wolfs?

I would think that in the past some companies have budgets to spend before the end of the year and that this would stimulate sales or activity in all markets. However, with the economy in recession, perhaps many companies and individuals will be awaiting new budget approvals and some Christmas gift money to spend a bit more at the beginning of 2010. Here's hoping that more sales are in everyone's future.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

We have seen about a 10% drop in November and December in comparison to what we'd expect based on the previous few months. It's been like this for several years now. Web hosting is just not something you buy for others and the holiday season isn't typically when people are looking to do web sites. There are just some services and products that are popular and others that are not during this time.

We have seen a drop in the amount of incoming leads to say the least. This has actually been the case since September and hopefully is a 4th quarter trend as Tony B mentioned.

I do not expect anyone to buy web hosting on Christmas eve. I can share with you that the only time during the year when our support operators respond with a delay of few hours is on Christmas and New Year's nights. We shall respect Christmas and to spend our time with the family and people we love. Business is always good in December so we can take a break for 24 hours.

We typically see a drop after Christmas when the people who had hoped to make it big during the Christmas season fail to make a profit.

When customers terminate, they either move to another host or just discontinue their websites. After the holidays, we see a lot of people discontinue their websites but leave the name servers pointed to us. We change the DNS to point to Google parked domains and continue to make income based on their marketing.

I would expect sales to fall slightly in the lead up to Christmas. I think it has already started for us.

It was a little slow last year in January but should pick up by mid feb.

I would also expect March/April to be when most new businesses are formed so people are likely to want web hosting more then.

I think might be some people thinking to sign the webhost with the new year start. With a welcoming the new year. May be the signing ratios be pick in at the start of january/february.

I would think sales would stay the same, Or maybe even go up a little.

My thought on this is because people will be gifted with money, So in that case if someone has been waiting to get money to launch a web site they get the money and then finaly have the total cost of buying what they want to get off the internet..

Its kind of the idea isn't it?

but people usually have a lot buy around christmas and money will be tight. I wouldn't have thought people would spend their christmas money on web hosting.

No what I really mean is, Like if you think about it kids like 16, 17 around there get money for Christmas now most kids around there that like playing games and know about web sites like to create clan sites for there clans and gaming now they spend there christmas money on the web host and domain, or even some of them spend it on game servers like say a kid got counter strike source for christmas and now he wants to get a game server so hell purchase one.. its little money here and there..

I've seen mixed trends.. WebHosting tends to fall from November upto the new year, and recover from the end of January when people have money again and want to take up on their New Years Resolutions/Ideas...

On Server Sales and other services, we find its generally quiet from now upto April when UK announces the Annual Budget.. Most companies accounts follow the UK Budget, so in the run to April, spending is tight to reduce their year end outgoings. And as soon as they start the new financial year, they have loads of money to spend again, new sales increase..

I would think sales would stay the same, Or maybe even go up a little.

My thought on this is because people will be gifted with money, So in that case if someone has been waiting to get money to launch a web site they get the money and then finaly have the total cost of buying what they want to get off the internet..

Its kind of the idea isn't it?

I was kind of thinking the same thing. But then again some people may be spending more than they're getting.

Hey guys,

according to my experience the sales even increase until December since many people order a new server as a gift. Moreover, before the 24th of December hardly anyone is on vacations (worldwide I guess?) because the weeks after Chistmas usually is a prefered time for this. Thus, sales might drop a little bit between Christmas and the first week of January.

Regards,
Constantin :)

Not sure about the effects other people get around this time, but looking at the bars in whmcs this has by far been our most profitable month with new orders.

Rather odd -- we've always seen an increase in November / December -- with a slight trough when the actual holidays are occurring. People just aren't using their computers at that particular point in time, nothing new.

Same occurs on most major holidays.

It is usually after 15th December that the sales start going down mainly because most people prefer to stay offline during the festive season. They only start to pick up again after mid January. This is also the time when many hosts come up with limited period promotional offers to get potential customers sign up during that time and take home the benefits on offer.

December has been historically the lowest month in the last 8 years.

We are usually start good in the beginning of December, but trail off fast after about the 15th as businesses start gearing up for holidays. 90% of our sign-ups are local, though. Online sign-ups are about the same, flat.

I think there will be no difference but this gives you an opportunity to offer special offers on Xmas :)

As an affiliate of hosts, I can agree. Fewer sales during November and December, then January was usually quite the opposite.

New hosting means new projects and I doubt that many people will do that at the end of the year, when the Holidays are the foremost thought. New projects and their hosting are stuff for the New Year's resolution. :)

I totally agree to Ryan-W, this is exactly what we experience for a few years:

It is usually after 15th December that the sales start going down mainly because most people prefer to stay offline during the festive season. They only start to pick up again after mid January.

I think this is a pretty normal, world-wide phenomenon.

Yep - I agree, sales are always quiet over the Christmas period, people are busy spending their money on chocolate, toys and businesses are looking forward to the new year etc :P

Yep - I agree, sales are always quiet over the Christmas period, people are busy spending their money on chocolate, toys and businesses are looking forward to the new year etc :P

Now is a good time for Federal money though (fiscal year starts October 1st).

My thoughts my be a bit different to others who posted here. I think that sales will drop and in December and pick back up again in March/April. The reason for this is because people get an advance on their salary in early December and as such, they tend to spend wildly to purchase gifts and decorations and make other people's promises come true. When it comes near to the end of month (most individuals tend to open hosting accounts end of the month) they will not have enough money to pay their bills and may end up simply closing their account and looking for something else or maybe turn over a new leaf in the new year while turning over a new business idea.

With the new business idea, they tend to get the systems in place first (if its a brick and mortar business) then order hosting and see about websites and stuff like that)

This rounds off the hosting sales going up in about March/April months