As more companies turn to outside hosting providers to create and manage Web sites, the Web hosting and servicing market is continuing to grow at a breakneck pace, according to a report from IDC.
The Web hosting services market is expected to grow by over $US1 billion in the US in 1999 alone, bringing the total to over $1.8 billion, according to the report.
The driving factor behind the growth is the strong US economy, followed by the IT industry and the Internet in general, Courtney Munroe, director of IDC's Business Network Services said.
Other factors behind the growth are the growing amount of Web pages a company uses and that the Web is the core component of the Internet economy as a whole, Munroe added.
The US Web hosting services market is one of the fastest-growing markets in the Internet economy, according to the report, "Web-Hosting Services: Market Review and Forecast, 1998-2003." The market will increase by a factor of 10 through 2003, bringing it to $18.9 billion, according to IDC.
Although the largest portion of that amount will be from US-based service providers, by 2003 international sales will generate a significant portion of the sales as well.