C I Host SMB Survey Shows Shared Web Hosting Demand Still Strong [11th December 2003]

Price Named Top Criterion, Yet 93 Percent Would Avoid Free Hosting

BEDFORD, TX (December 11, 2003) - A recent survey by C I Host shows that more
than half of small and medium sized businesses still don't have a Web site, but 41 percent plan to develop one over the next year.

Of those who have no Web site, 90 percent say they plan to contract for shared hosting for their first Web site. Of those who already have a Web site, only about a third use it to sell products or services or perform Internet-based transactions.

Christopher Faulkner, CEO of C I Host, pointed to the survey as evidence that that there is a strong, untapped market for shared hosting.

"Web Hosting represents a significant opportunity and is a profoundly growing market," Faulkner said. "SMBs use their web sites primarily for disseminating information about their company and its products and services."

Another encouraging finding was that 93 percent of business owners wouldn't be interested in free Web hosting.

Most said they either did not trust a company that was offering free Web hosting or felt they would have no recourse if the company caused an error with their site or damaged their online business.

"We repeatedly heard the phrase, 'You get what you pay for,'" Faulkner said.

Although the vast majority of companies would avoid free hosting, price was still a compelling reason to pick one Web host over another.

Some 43 percent of companies named price as their primary reason in choosing a Web host, followed by support, 23 percent; financial strength of the company, 17 percent; reliability, 15 percent; and features offered, 2 percent.

The random survey included 1,000 small and medium sized businesses in the United States and Canada. None were C I Host customers. All the companies had fewer than 15 employees and revenues between $100,000 and $10 million. The survey was conducted by the C I Host telemarketing division in November 2003.

Of those surveyed, 52 percent had no Web site and of the 48 percent who had a Web site, only 28 percent used it to sell products or services. Of those who didn't have a Web site, 2 percent planned to get one within a month; 6 percent within 3 months; 19 percent within 6 months; 41 percent within a year; and 32 percent within no particular time.

Of those without a Web site, 90 percent expected to contract for a share package; 9 percent for a dedicated server; and 1 percent for a colocation package.

According to the most recent U.S. Census data, there are more than 5 million firms in the country with fewer than 20 employees.

--About C I Host--

C I Host (www.cihost.com), based in the Dallas/Fort Worth market, is a Web hosting and Internet solutions provider, domain name registrar (DNR) and application service provider (ASP) serving 200,000 individual consumers and businesses in 182 countries worldwide.

C I Host creates business-class Web hosting solutions for the small- and medium-enterprise (SME) market, with the broadest portfolio of managed hosting and value-added services in the industry. C I Host is accredited by ICANN to register domain names.

C I Host is HIPAA-compliant and has passed the SAS70 audit.

C I Host has been ranked #1 in speed by the Adoloma Web Hosting Guide. C I Host has been consistently ranked among the Top 5 Web hosting companies out of 16,000 around the globe by c|net's Ultimate Web Host List, HostPulse, WebHostsOnline.com and HostChart.com. C I Host was named among the Top 25
Web hosting companies by HostIndex.com.

C I Host offers turn-key services ranging from initial domain name registration to custom dedicated servers for e-commerce on today's Web. The company offers innovative packages and services to the Internet community.

C I Host operates three diverse data centers across the United States, with its main facility and Network Operations Center in Bedford, Texas. C I Host also has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and London.

All telco-grade, tier-1 data centers are wholly owned and operated by C I Host and consist of redundant diesel generator backups and a temperature-controlled secure environment with fully redundant UPS capability. All server hardware is fully tested and configured for optimal performance. Daily Web server backups and full fire protection guard against any data loss. To deliver speed and reliability, C I Host's servers are connected to two OC-12 fiber connections, five DS-3 and two OC-3 lines from five diverse Internet backbones for a total of more than 2.6 Gigabits of
available bandwidth.

###

Editorial Contact:

D. Kent Pingel
Public Relations Director
C I Host
888-868-9931 ext. 7006
kentp@cihost.com