May 2, 2003 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The Convergence Consulting Group (convergenceonline.com), a technology research and consulting firm based in Toronto, Ontario today announced the release of its third annual Canadian Hosting Market report. Hundreds of interviews with key hosting company personnel and equipment vendors were conducted in compiling the 100-page report.
Among the principal forecasts, the Canadian Web hosting market is expected to grow by 23 percent in 2003 to $734 million and by 19 percent to $877 million in 2004. At the end of 2002, Convergence estimated the hosting market to be $599 million.
The report also finds that the structure of the market is evolving. Based on revenue, both the colocation and shared hosting segments are becoming smaller components of the overall market. This leaves the dedicated and application hosting segments of the market as the largest and second largest revenue generators respectively. The report predicts that the two segments will quickly become the key revenue drivers of the overall market ? making up approximately 65 percent of market revenue by the end of 2003.
In terms of overall rankings, the report finds that on the basis of revenue, IBM (ibm.com), Telus (telus.com) and EDS (eds.com) are the top three hosts in Canada. Other significant market players include Aliant/xwave (aliant.ca), AT&T Canada (attcanada.com), Bell Canada (bell.ca), CGI (cgi.com), Q9 (q9.com) and WorldCom Canada (wcom.ca).
These market leaders are expected to head the various market segments. In terms of revenue, the report forecasts IBM at the top of the dedicated and application segments (other key players: EDS, Telus), Telus leading the shared segment (other key players: Bell, Look (look.ca), NetNation (netnation.com), Primus (primus.ca), with Q9 topping the colocation segment (other key player: WorldCom Canada).
