Heart Internet asked 1,000 people if they had ever heard of the term "web hosting" and 61 percent said no
A new study released on Thursday by UK web hosting provider Heart Internet finds more than half of the general public in the UK have no clue what web hosting is.
Heart Internet asked 1,000 people if they had ever heard of the term “web hosting” and 61 percent said no.
For those who work in the web hosting industry and have ever had to describe to others what they do at a non-industry party or family event these results may not be entirely surprising.
Heart Internet believes that though demand in the UK for personal websites is healthy, web hosting remains a niche technical product. Web hosts like 1&1 have launched TV commercials in the UK market, they too have focused on the personal website, specifically in the case of 1&1, its MyWebsite builder.
Though there hasn’t been a similar study conducted in the US recently, it would be interesting to see the results. Go Daddy TV ads, while distributed at a broad scale during the SuperBowl, may also confuse viewers who are distracted by the Go Daddy girls as to what the ads are actually about. Still, partnerships like Go Daddy and OfficeMax are aiming to inform SMBs what web hosting is, and make it easy for them to buy it.
According to Heart Internet’s research, 35-44 year olds are the most common age group to have heard of web hosting as nearly half had heard of web hosting. On the other hand, 18-24 year olds were the least like, with only 30 percent saying they knew what web hosting is.
The study also found that more men than women claimed to be aware of the term web hosting.
Talk back: How do you market your web hosting services to ensure consumers know what your services actually do? Do you notice similar trends? Let us know in a comment.
About Nicole Henderson
Nicole Henderson is the Editor in Chief of the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
This survey by Heart Internet comes as no surprise to me. I get to see lots of glazed eyes on peoples faces when I try to explain what web hosting is. Though in our experience the people from the USA do seem to be more familiar with the term. I think its the word “hosting” which throws most people.
Interesting. I wonder what other words (if any) the 61% relate to the term web hosting?
For example, have more people heard of the term “Internet Service Provider”? and if so do those same people think that “web hosts” are the same thing?
Richard @ Domains Foundry
I think the survey will be very useful for service providers, especially web designers and developers to develop a more comprehensive package for customers. This will also be good for them as the bargains from a comprehensive package of web design, web hosting, SEO services etc will be far larger than that of web hosting alone.
I would be interested to know more details about the study, such as how it was carried out and what people who said they hadn’t heard of web hosting thought it might be!
Heart Internet has come up with some interesting facts. As per the study, 61% people in UK don’t no what is web hosting. If such survey is conducted in India, the result would be more shocking, I think more than 90% of the people in India might not be familiar with web hosting. Considering the US market, I think US stats might be better than UK.
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