Observation: Medium and small websites may gradually become the main characters of the Internet

The latest survey data from the DCCI Internet Data Center shows that websites related to personal interests now account for a significant proportion of those frequently visited by netizens. General portal sites are gradually losing their dominant position, and medium and small-sized sites targeting vertical portals may become the main players in the future of the internet.

It is reported that starting from next year, people will be able to use personalized domain suffixes instead of the common ".com" and ".net", such as .love and .city. Authoritative figures believe that medium and small-sized sites built on personalized domains will accelerate the diversified development of the internet. Meanwhile, the one-sixth theory also shows that netizens usually visit six major websites: 1 search engine, 2 news portal sites, 2 tool-type websites (real estate & cars/air tickets), and 1 website related to personal interests. The last category of websites is the most numerous. According to relevant statistics, there are currently 2.2 million local or industry websites in China with no more than 1 million IPs and annual revenue of less than 1 million US dollars.

The author learned from Now.cn, a domestic internet infrastructure service provider, that the domain name and hosting market showed prosperity in the first half of 2008, verifying the prediction made earlier this year by CCID Consulting about the development prospect of the IDC market scale. The person in charge of the company pointed out that this indicates that the continuously growing pie of the internet is directly stimulating the sharing desire of medium and small-sized sites, which also promotes the substantial development of the IDC agency market.

"A considerable part of the currently booming local/industry websites aim to become vertical portals (the largest website in a specific field), while another part relies on the professionalism of their websites to become product sales agents in that industry," said an insider who has been paying long-term attention to the research of medium and small-sized websites. It is understood that among various IT information or technical websites, there are many IDC agencies mainly oriented towards website members for marketing. The person in charge of Now.cn said that the IDC industry has always been channel sales-oriented. Adopting such an operating model not only meets the increasingly strong demand for website construction on the internet but also provides these websites with another revenue-generating channel, and the sales are highly targeted. This is the development path for many internet enthusiasts or entrepreneurs.

Experts say that the competitive landscape of the internet industry is changing rapidly. The needs of netizens and advertisers are constantly refined, and medium and small-sized websites are rushing into the internet to open up blue oceans. All these will lead to an increase in the number of medium and small-sized websites. However, they must be able to very accurately meet the needs of specific groups in order to be chosen as one of the six websites by netizens and achieve sustainable development.