Re: Nature of the Web Design Industry

Put the brakes on before you finish your thesis.

First read this -----
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/comment/0,5859,2631782,00.html

I have seen first hand IBM's leverage over a large organization.  They may
not be perfect but they are doing a great job of gathering some very large
e-commerce projects under their domain (pardon the pun).  Add to that, their
partnerships with Ariba and Broadvision ( too name just two ) and you see a
powerful juggernaut developing.  These guys invented technology for big
business.

As for the medium and small businesses, their are some traditional print
media companies that are moving to consolidate the local masses under the
banner of "communities".  Some I know of are koz.com, Infi.net and Bernard
Publishing.  Not to mention the portal sites and online malls.

As for small operators, your business classes better be teaching you one of
two business models.  Work for big or be ever working towards growing your
private business bigger.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Victor Daniel a.k.a the MacNut" <macnut(at)pro-usa.net>
To: <hwg-business(at)mail.hwg.org>
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2000 5:44 PM
Subject: Nature of the Web Design Industry


> Hello Fellow HWG'ers,
> I'm been taking some business courses (finishing up my Bachelor's
> degree, actually) and one of those is a Business Strategy course.
> Part of the course is describing various types of industries as
> related to the company's strategy. The description of the Fragmented
> Industry I think fits our field perfectly:
>
> 1) Low entry barriers-anyone with a computer, an Internet connection
> and the desire can call themselves a web designer (how good they may
> be is another matter)
>
> 2) Technology changing so rapidly and exploding into so many new
> areas and along so many different paths that businesses must
> specialize just to keep up (how many web designers specialize in
> e-commerce, or Perl, or Flash/Shockwave, or graphic design, etc).
>
> 3) Absence of large-scale production economies permit small firms to
> compete on an equal cost footing with large firms-it doesn't cost any
> less per site to build a hundred websites than to produce one
> (websites can't really be mass-produced that way anyhow, see next
> point)
>
> 4) Buyers require relatively small quantities of customized products
> (websites, anyone?) and since demand for one particular product is
> small, sales volume is not large enough to give production,
> distribution or marketing advantages to a large firm.
>
> 5) The market for the industry's product/service is becoming more
> global, so more competitors from foreign countries can get into the
> act (how many web designers here are from outside the US?)
>
> 6) Market demand is so large and diverse that it takes a large number
> of firms to accommodate buyer requirements.
>
> 7) The industry is so new that firms have not yet gotten large enough
> to command significant market share (how long have even the
> "veterans" on this list been web designers?).
>
> My question is, how long can the web design industry remain
> fragmented? Is it even possible for a few large shops to dominate the
> market, or will there always be room for the small operator? If so,
> how can the small operator continue to compete?
>
> Just some questions about the future of our industry to contemplate
> and comment on.
>
> --
> Victor Daniel
> MacNut Web Design
> <http://www.macnutweb.com>
> vdaniel(at)pro-usa.net
>

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