EoW July 2012

Transatlantic cable

In Ohio, the holdouts make up half of all small enterprises. (“Is Your Business Online? About Half of Small Companies in Ohio Don’t Have Websites,” 19 th May). Ms Pledger reported that, according to Google’s research, small American companies (250 employees or fewer) do not bother with websites primarily because they think setting them up is too hard, too costly, and too time-consuming. While none of that is true, something else is. The reality, the Plain Dealer was told by Rebecca Ginsberg, a Google representative in New York, is that “mall businesses are the backbone of this country, but a lot of them are missing out on opportunities by not being online.” Google is trying to nudge small businesses into the Internet age. The search engine giant has teamed up with Intuit Inc, a payroll services company, in a year-long project to encourage more businesses to go online. Intuit is o ering free, easy-to-build websites, then charging a $6.99 monthly hosting fee for a year. So far, about 100,000 small businesses have taken advantage of the project, including thousands in Ohio. The Google/Ipsos survey disclosed that 54 per cent of Ohio businesses, of whatever size, do not have websites, thus putting the state close to the national average. The percentage of businesses without websites in New York is 53 per cent. In Kentucky, it is 71 per cent.

According to Gartner the global telecom equipment market will grow 6.9 per cent in 2012, to $472 billion. The continued explosion of the mobile device space will fuel much of the growth for telecom equipment vendors. There is also growing demand for enterprise networking equipment, particularly in the areas of application acceleration, network security, wireless LAN, and Ethernet switches, Gartner said.

A survey of small businesses in Ohio uncovers a phenomenon: half of them do without a website

When business reporter Marcia Pledger of the Cleveland Plain Dealer visited a local family-run tool-and-die business, she was not surprised to see the owner’s son cutting an 8,000-pound cast iron clutch with a computer-driven machine. Something else did deliver a surprise: after nearly ve decades in existence, the company still does not have a website. Even more startling is that the business is in good company. According to a survey by Google and the global market research firm Ipsos, while 97 per cent of Americans look online for products and services, 58 per cent of the small businesses in the US have no website.

23

EuroWire – July 2012