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Two Reports Cast Dim View on AU Web

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Isaac

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User since: December 13, 1998

Last login: October 27, 2007

Articles written: 67

The latest reports from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Dun & Bradstreet bring little hope to Web developers in Australia. While end-user adoption of the Internet has increased, and more businesses have access, a large number of business owners appear to have little respect for the internet as a marketing and information tool.

The ABS report, Business Use of Information Technology 2000-2001, outlines increased business usage of the internet for email, searching, banking, and government services. But it also says that around 75% of Australian businesses do not have a site, and have no intentions of having one developed.

For larger companies only (100+ employees), it reports that 80% have a corporate site.

From the D&B poll of executives, around 50% of companies reported having a web site, but more than a third considered websites "not important". This figure has increased from previous polls.

Some further information can be found at Australian IT: Web not a business priority.

 

isaac
www.triplezero.com.au

Isaac is a designer from Adelaide, South Australia, where he has run Triplezero for almost a decade.

He was a member and administrator of evolt.org since its founding in 1998, designed the current site, and was a regular contributor on evolt.org's direction-setting discussion list, theforum.

On the side, he runs Opinion, Hoops SA, Confessions, Daily Male, and Comments, as well as maintaining a travel gallery at Bigtrip.org.

Redesigns?

Submitted by damclean on March 27, 2002 - 01:21.

Now, if only we can convince clients who have horrible sites to redesign. Are there any stats available on that?

"What do you mean my site designed in 1996 doesn't cut it any more?"

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Poor Design and Salesmanship

Submitted by fearonism on March 27, 2002 - 05:55.

As things slow down in the web universe I think a lot of the blame has to be shouldered by us designersl. Poor solutions. Poor useability. Inflated pricing and often times steeply discounted pricing. All its done is confuse clients as to what a good web site should cost. I think clients feel dissatisfied for good reason most times and its made it harder to sell web design because of it. I dont know the situation in Australia but I do know that most big budget clients that have a need for web design have either got what they want already and wont revise for a long time or they have taken content mgmt and design in house only neededing one or two bodies. As far as small business goes there are a lot of times where sites arent needed but effective emarketing strategies could used, yet they're not biting (...does my plumber really need a web site?). I think businesses are in backlash mode to some extent right now ("...Our site didnt bring us any business and we spent X amount of dollars building it"), however I see the future opening up real opportunities. People rag on flash in the IA/UI world but truth is that if the web has a chance Flash will probably play a big part in it. WI/FI / broadband will probably help open some room for growth down the line too. Until then I dont see much changing.

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Apples and pears

Submitted by andrewpander on April 2, 2002 - 00:40.

Small wonder, AFAICS.

What are the odds that the 75% have been spammed endless times by 'your business can be online for $7.50' companies. How confusing for a business to see quotes vary between, say, $12k and $250. If you know nothing of the industry you'd probably choose neither and stay the hell out of the way. These stats may say more about the negative effects of spam on the industry than retrograde business practices in Australia (or NZ, which I'd say is only slightly better). It certainly doesn't garner respect for the industry from non-net-savvy industries.

Anyone else in for a pogrom against bargain basement web dev-ers?

FWIW: the construction industry stats are no surprise, but the health and community services stats certainly are. How ironic!

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