Submitted by Admin on 10/Oct/2011 12:58
We hosting service has come a long way in the Indian market. If we were to track down Web Hosting industry, many things have changed from later 90's to till now. The current scenario can be broken down on following parameters - pricing, offerings, quality of service, business sustainability and client awareness. Soon we will dwell upon these parameters, but the biggest difference between then and now is the COMPETITION. The competition is so fierce in the Indian Web Hosting market that it is now literally a dog eat dog world. Now the consumer is the king and the difficult task lies with him in choosing the best hosting for his website.
As mentioned above, let me now elaborate on the point mentioned above :
Pricing - Pricing has nearly dropped nearly 60% between then and now. Back in those old days, the hosting plans were offered in the range of Rs.2000-3000 a year. These days the starter plans begin in the range of Rs.800-1200 a year. Another difference is that in the earlier days these plans were mostly just plain hosting plans. Whereas now these are clubbed with some sort of an offer or a topping. The most important difference has come in the minimum specs you get when you buy a web hosting plan. More on that follows below.
Offerings - Hosting offerings have changed immensely in all this time period. In the early days, web hosting companies used to offer a pittance of space, data-transfer, email accounts, DB's etc. A web hosting plan with 50mb space and 5 email ID's was considered a super plan. Whereas now the basic plans start with 1 GB space and unlimited email ID's. The biggest difference between then and now is the use of 'UNLIMITED' word. Back Unlimited word was used very rarely maybe except for email accounts etc. But now it thrown everywhere around like Unlimited space, Unlimited data-transfer etc. But is Unlimited really Unlimited? All the consumer needs to do is go through the SLA (Service Level Agreement) of the web hosting company and check for fine nuances like 'subject to ....'. Really no thing in this world is Unlimited.
Quality of Service - This is one aspect in which if things might not have changed but have actually gone down. When the margins were good, a web hosting could afford to put fewer sites on the same server, employ better people, spend more on good servers and provide better support. But with margins thinning down, quality of service has taken a real beating. Now just to survive a web hosting company needs to host several hundred websites together, thus leading to higher probability of an issue with a single site, putting down the whole server and all the websites in it. And even investing on support staff comes with a premium. There are many web hosting companies who have notched up high numbers but are still managed single handedly. It seems true for many hosting companies in the World, but more so for Indian Web Hosting Companies.
Business Sustainability - In late 90's, Web Hosting Companies in India had a better chance of surviving the market than any time later. Today it is a game of sheer volume and presence. Its improbable to think of a web hosting company to sustain just only on hosting and domain names unless they host 1000+ sites. Even large players fall back on other products like Digital Certificates, web development services etc. to get their margins. Today a Web Hosting Company needs to have an innovative product line with multiple offerings to help the customer choose from. An even higher pressure is exerted by a more net savvy customer base. Next point elaborates this aspect.
Client Awareness - The profile of client in early 2000's and now has immensely changed in the Indian hosting scenario context. Back then a majority of clients were unaware of what is web hosting, even many did not have an email ID. But today its a total reverse. Most clients today are heavy Internet users. They have at-least some idea of Domain registration, Web Hosting etc. and most importantly they know how important it is to their business.
We elaborated above on the current and the past web hosting scenario in India. So what about future? Future like ever before is bound to be exciting, there are going to be even bigger offerings with more toppings, even more competition among web hosting companies - but one thing is certain - in near future consumer base will grow as more awareness creeps amongst the masses and ofcouse they will belong to a demanding lot.
Kirti
As mentioned above, let me now elaborate on the point mentioned above :
Pricing - Pricing has nearly dropped nearly 60% between then and now. Back in those old days, the hosting plans were offered in the range of Rs.2000-3000 a year. These days the starter plans begin in the range of Rs.800-1200 a year. Another difference is that in the earlier days these plans were mostly just plain hosting plans. Whereas now these are clubbed with some sort of an offer or a topping. The most important difference has come in the minimum specs you get when you buy a web hosting plan. More on that follows below.
Offerings - Hosting offerings have changed immensely in all this time period. In the early days, web hosting companies used to offer a pittance of space, data-transfer, email accounts, DB's etc. A web hosting plan with 50mb space and 5 email ID's was considered a super plan. Whereas now the basic plans start with 1 GB space and unlimited email ID's. The biggest difference between then and now is the use of 'UNLIMITED' word. Back Unlimited word was used very rarely maybe except for email accounts etc. But now it thrown everywhere around like Unlimited space, Unlimited data-transfer etc. But is Unlimited really Unlimited? All the consumer needs to do is go through the SLA (Service Level Agreement) of the web hosting company and check for fine nuances like 'subject to ....'. Really no thing in this world is Unlimited.
Quality of Service - This is one aspect in which if things might not have changed but have actually gone down. When the margins were good, a web hosting could afford to put fewer sites on the same server, employ better people, spend more on good servers and provide better support. But with margins thinning down, quality of service has taken a real beating. Now just to survive a web hosting company needs to host several hundred websites together, thus leading to higher probability of an issue with a single site, putting down the whole server and all the websites in it. And even investing on support staff comes with a premium. There are many web hosting companies who have notched up high numbers but are still managed single handedly. It seems true for many hosting companies in the World, but more so for Indian Web Hosting Companies.
Business Sustainability - In late 90's, Web Hosting Companies in India had a better chance of surviving the market than any time later. Today it is a game of sheer volume and presence. Its improbable to think of a web hosting company to sustain just only on hosting and domain names unless they host 1000+ sites. Even large players fall back on other products like Digital Certificates, web development services etc. to get their margins. Today a Web Hosting Company needs to have an innovative product line with multiple offerings to help the customer choose from. An even higher pressure is exerted by a more net savvy customer base. Next point elaborates this aspect.
Client Awareness - The profile of client in early 2000's and now has immensely changed in the Indian hosting scenario context. Back then a majority of clients were unaware of what is web hosting, even many did not have an email ID. But today its a total reverse. Most clients today are heavy Internet users. They have at-least some idea of Domain registration, Web Hosting etc. and most importantly they know how important it is to their business.
We elaborated above on the current and the past web hosting scenario in India. So what about future? Future like ever before is bound to be exciting, there are going to be even bigger offerings with more toppings, even more competition among web hosting companies - but one thing is certain - in near future consumer base will grow as more awareness creeps amongst the masses and ofcouse they will belong to a demanding lot.
Kirti
