February 21, 2003 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- The emerging mass market for low-end shared Web hosting solutions promises to make a powerful impact on the small to medium-sized business hosting sector, as millions of uninitiated small businesses look to bring their businesses online.
But the mass market also brings with it a whole new set of expectations for service providers, which could allow a new kind of hosting company to make a play for a significant piece of this important market.
Jeff Mask, director of business development at internet portal operator About Inc. (About.com) says his company is working to conquer this segment with an unusual set of advantages, including a well-recognized brand, an enormous audience of Web users, an easy-to-use set of small business tools and a substantial base of existing free Web hosting customers.
For several years, says Mask, About.com has been serving consumers and small businesses with tools, including free Web hosting, supported mainly by advertising revenue. But as advertising-supported models become less viable, he says, the company has begun to transition more of its services into the subscription services formula. With the transition culminating just as the SMB hosting sector is reaching the end of the early-adopter phase, About.com is able to join the charge to meet the mass market that follows.
About.com's approach to Web hosting involves a handful of separately-operated hosting brands, including Freeservers.com, 50megs.com and BizHosting.com, each of which provides different combinations of free and paid Web hosting services for different levels of customers.
"We consciously made the decision not to integrate those together," says Mask, "to try to gain market share in each of those different markets alone, instead of doing it all together with one property."
Between its brands, says Mask, About is serving close to 3 million free hosting customers. In 2002, the company's budding paid hosting business grew by 400 percent to reach around 60,000 customers.
With a very recognizable presence, even around novice Web users, and its large base of free hosting customers, Mask says About is uniquely positioned to capture a considerable share of the emerging mass market.
"Because we have a strong free base and a strong paid base already," he says, "our potential to increase the subscriptions is tremendous. It's better now than it ever has been, and that's exactly our target; to find different ways to acquire new paying customers, and to up-sell free customers throughout all of our properties."
Despite the thick competition in the SMB hosting space About is confident it can compete, and even lead, when it comes to serving mass-market clientele.
"I think there are some established leaders [in the SMB space]," says Mask. "But the interesting thing with this market, from what we've researched, is they can come and go very quickly. There are some people that we feel are leading right now, but that does not mean we don't have the potential to be as strong or stronger."
"The company is currently working on launching an About-branded hosting solution, that will incorporate many of the features of the company's other hosting brands, and that it hopes will resonate even better with new hosting customers."
"It feels really good to look ahead in a positive way," says Mask, "and know that we have a lot of potential here."
