"The mass-market Web hosting sector is a space that is fragmented, under pressure and in the middle of an important transformation period," said Philbert Shih, Senior Analyst at T1R and lead author of the report. "Change is being driven by the proliferation of broadband access, Web-enabled mobile devices, and users' willingness to take more of their personal and business lives online. This has led to the growing importance of back-end applications such as messaging and collaboration tools, which are adding a layer of value for an industry that has been focused on outward-facing Web presence for most of its history."

T1R analysts find that the competitive landscape remains crowded with functional hosters, social networks and larger players such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. Shared hosting bears the brunt of this onslaught, while dedicated hosting continues to be challenged by virtualized infrastructure technology. Adding fuel to the fire is the emergence of open computing platforms, led by Amazon. Meanwhile, domains continue to rise in value and are opening the door for ad-supported services. All these developments are contributing to a wave of change that will reshape the marketplace and compel those determined to be long-term players to shift their focus. This will also have an effect on M&A as companies look to acquire specific technical or service capabilities, while aggressively searching for targets to build critical mass.

This 67-page report, titled ‘Mass Market Hosting Quarterly Winter 2007’ recaps the key events of the recent quarter and assesses their impact. It provides analysis of changes in market share and offers detailed discussion and analysis of important trends and developments that were driving the mass-market hosting sector, as well as insight into where this market is going.

The trends covered in this report include:
M&A activity changes direction: A busy quarter of M&A was highlighted by acquisitions designed to gain capabilities.
Answering Amazon's S3: Someone should fix S3 and create an Amazon killer.
The case for on-demand services: On-demand services are a requisite for success in the mass-market hosting sector.
The Internet giants revisited: The Internet giants continue to encroach on the hosting sector.
More moves from Google: Google was less active in Q307, but managed to take more steps to challenge the hosting sector.

Key Companies Covered

The report covers more than 20 key public and private companies in the mass-market hosting sector, including: 1&1, Amazon, Arsys, BlueFreeway, Endurance International, eNom (Demand Media), Facebook, Go Daddy, Google, Group NBT, Hostopia, Hostway, Mamut, MelbourneIT, Microsoft, NaviSite, Network Solutions, Peer1, Pipex, Rackspace, Register.It, Salesforce.com, SoftLayer, SWSoft, The Planet, Tucows, Verio (NTT), Web.com, Webmail.us, Website Pros, Yahoo, Zimbra and Zoho.

Report Orders

To learn more about this report, visit www.t1r.com or contact Dan Ephraim, Vice President, Business Development with Tier1 Research, at 212-505-3030 x 122 or at dan.ephraim@tier1research.com.

About Tier1 Research

Tier1 Research (T1R), a division of The 451 Group, analyzes the financial and industry implications of developments affecting public and private companies within the IT, communications and Internet sectors – with a particular focus on hosting, Internet infrastructure and IT services. Clients include institutional investors and technology vendors, along with end users and venture capitalists. These clients leverage T1R's analytical insight for idea generation, trend identification, due diligence and grounded opinions, as well as metrics and forecasts on companies and industries covered.