“With the web
design
service industry a $20.1B market in the US alone, and more than 16M new
websites added every month, who creates these millions of new sites?
More than 70% of websites are created in a professional process by
developers using pro-developers platforms. These B2B solutions offer
tools for building advanced websites including custom design and CMS
(Content Management Systems), such as WordPress, Joomla and Drupal.”
While 70% of websites are built by
developers,
agencies, and freelancers, only 3% of websites are built by
small-businesses with self-serve DIY tools like Squarespace, Wix,
and Weebly. The DIY model has barely putting a dent in the website
building market, despite aggressively building out features for
over a decade.
Why do businesses still depend on internal
teams or
service providers, ie agencies and freelancers, to build websites for
them? Can’t these feature-rich self-serve platforms provide powerful,
easy-to-use tools businesses need to build a site themselves, without
needing to depend on “the web guy?” Shouldn’t building a website be as
easy as setting up a Facebook.
Platform companies are product organizations
that think in terms of roadmaps and features and sprints.
While some websites are simple and any
luddite can
quickly build them with existing DIY tools, many business websites are
extremely complex and are custom built by internal teams and / or
digital agencies for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Or millions.
And, many small businesses just don’t want to learn how to use DIY
tools, or don’t care to, or have time to. They’d rather focus on their
day to day business. Digital marketing is not their forte or interest.
(Source: medium.com)
