Small Business Sets the Pace in Innovation
Small Biz Online Advertising Racing Ahead at 49% Annual Growth Rate: Are You Keeping Up?
The Boston-based Yankee Group, in a series of new studies, says the market for online marketing and advertising was $1.3 billion at small- and medium-sized businesses and growing at a very high rate of 49%.
More benchmarks:
? The 2005 spending on IT solutions ranged from $16,500 for two to 19 employee companies to $821,000 for mid-market enterprises with 500 to 1,000 employees.
? In 2005, the US SMB and mid-market-focused web hosting market was $4.4 billion and growing at a rate of 6%. The market for online marketing and advertising was $1.3 billion and growing at a very high rate of 49%.
? Software-as-a-service is rapidly gaining ground in the business applications market. More than 60% of SMBs attribute lower expense rates and increases in productivity as driving factors for adopting software-as-a-service.
? Security and backup are the top two most challenging IT issues facing SMBs. The primary obstacle to addressing these IT issues is price. Other major obstacles are high implementation time, lack of IT staff and concern that one upgrade will trigger other upgrades.
? SMBs are in need of security protection as complements to their broadband service, as more than 60% manage their own messaging needs because of privacy and data security concerns.
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