SMEs too busy to manage own websites

Small businesses are driving the growth of the online services market, according to new research.

A report from analyst house Yankee Group says that because small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often lack in-house technical and marketing expertise - and lack the time to learn about these areas - they are more and more likely to hire an outsider to design and build their web presence for them.

Small companies are already offering ecommerce and other interactive e-services over the web and, as this continues, their needs for internet marketing services should grow as well, said the analyst.

Yankee Group says about 65 per cent of SMEs have websites and 39 per cent offer ecommerce, up five per cent from a year ago.

These trends have led to solid growth in sales for web hosting (which will hit $5.4bn by 2010), web-based services ($4.1bn by 2010) and online marketing ($9.3bn by 2010).

Sanjeev Aggarawal, senior analyst at Yankee Group, said online marketing is "too complicated" for the average SME and so they choose to rely on online services companies which can advise them on how to get the most out of their web presence.