August 25, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Internet services provider Tucows (tucowsinc.com) announced on Monday it has released the results of a survey conducted by its reseller services group OpenSRS (opensrs.com) at last month's HostingCon 2008 conference.
The survey revealed that resellers of email and domain names are missing significant business opportunities to tap into social network users.
Sixty percent of survey participants said they have their own blog or personal website, while nearly 75 percent use social networks like Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and FriendFeed to share information with friends and family.
Despite this overwhelming majority of individuals using social networking services, 81 percent of survey respondents in the web hosting industry do not believe these web 2.0 businesses could hinder their business.
"It's important that as the web hosting industry moves forward, we understand that Internet users are seeking a customized, personalized, Internet experience for both personal and professional reasons," says Ken Schafer, vice president of product management and marketing for Tucows. "Ultimately, it's about customer relationships. Providers and resellers need to work together to provide the support, services and infrastructure that give users the best experience."
The survey also found that 73 percent of all domain name resellers enjoy working with their provider, 75 percent believe their provider understands its needs and nearly 50 percent have no complaints with their provider.
For those respondents that did have issues with their provider, they cited poor communication or support and lack of the full range of services their customers want as their top complaints.
Some cynics may question the implications of a company like OpenSRS conducting a survey and posting the results in a press release, suspecting there to be some kind of hidden agenda.
However, being that OpenSRS consistently promotes itself as a "reseller-friendly" wholesale domain registrar, it would make perfect sense that the company genuinely has the resellers' interest in mind.
And of course, the more successful the company's reseller customers are, the more successful OpenSRS, in turn, becomes.
OpenSRS recently relaunched its wholesale domain registrar services, expanding its offerings to include hosted email and SSL certificates. The company has grown steadily each year and now has over 9,000 active resellers on six continents.
