This material is an attempt to systematize disparate data on the site development market, describe the current situation as a whole, calculate quantitative data (such as market size, number and composition of participants), highlight the main development trends.
General market situation
At the moment, the market is developing quite a favorable situation - its volume is growing, the average project price is increasing, the demand from customers is quite large. However, given the rapid growth in the total number of Runet users (for example, in the regions), this is not surprising and quite natural.
A large number of companies (over a thousand) operate on the market, most of which consist of 3-4 people and operate in a low price range. Website development is one of the most popular and widespread types of business among technically literate youth. The activities of such companies are completely opaque and difficult to account for.
The great difficulty in quantifying any market parameters is the main reason for the complete absence of any analytical information, while the situation is much more transparent in the “neighboring” Internet advertising market.
The market is still in an intermediate stage. He is no longer “wild”, but far from civilized. Most large customers and companies for which the Internet is really important have a good understanding of the situation and work with market leaders, but at the same time a huge number of medium and small customer companies still turn to small web studios or freelancers.
DOT www.dot.ru (Moscow)
Ivanyushkin Gleb, Executive Director
The market situation is more than attractive. Despite the fact that now the market has reached extreme fragmentation, competition for experienced players is not very noticeable. It is no secret that a huge number of studios and individuals are engaged in or trying to do this business. This is determined by the low cost of entering this industry and the democratic information space of the Runet. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine what is really hiding behind the sign of the site of the next web studio. Nevertheless, most large tenders for the creation of projects of medium and complex level are still held among the top five developers who can offer a high level of design and software technology, along with a whole range of additional services for optimization, promotion, support. With a detailed look at the professionals of the web development market, you can highlight certain specializations by type of work or industry. In particular, for someone, the "bread" path is the design of online stores, for some it is vibrant promotional sites, someone has gotten his hand in creating postcards, banners or flash games, search engine optimization. The audience of the Russian Internet is still growing, which makes the site building industry attractive enough for foreign investment.
We will try to highlight the key points that will help us characterize the current state of the market.
Low threshold for company entry into the market
A low entry threshold is what makes the website development market so popular with young people (mostly students) and single freelancers. Indeed, to create a web studio, it is enough to assemble a team of 2-4 people, create your own website and start searching for customers. An office is optional, permanent staff too. There is a demand for the services of such companies and, given the low literacy of a large number of customers in this area, such companies can compete with more serious players in individual tenders.
It is obvious that such companies cannot ensure high quality of work and guarantee clear deadlines for their implementation, however, the low cost of services provides the necessary demand from small and inexperienced customer companies.
As a rule, such web studios do not survive due to low profitability, or do not develop in any way, remaining in their infancy.
A large number of small studios
Due to the low entry threshold, the market is flooded with a huge number of small studios and just loners. This is a key problem for market development. It is difficult for an inexperienced customer to navigate among a large number of contractors, and he often acts at random or “by acquaintance”, receiving a product with obviously low quality. Some companies are moving to more professional developers as the next step in developing their business on the Internet. Many, having made the “first pancake lumpy”, are convinced of the hopelessness of the idea as a whole and leave everything as it is.
Standard solutions for mid-level studios
Many studios with a sufficient flow of incoming applications focus on scaling standard solutions (a typical online store, template design, business card website, etc.) without offering the customer a unique communication solution to his problem. This helps to reduce the cost of work and the risks associated with the coordination of results (the client buys almost a “box”). However, this approach often does not take into account the real needs of the customer and gives an unsatisfactory output.
Top studios often sin by this approach (for example, they are limited to 1-2 design templates for a large corporate website), making projects for medium and non-critical business clients.
X-Project www.xproject.ru (Moscow)
Dmitry Budnevsky, Director
There is a spontaneous occurrence of a large number of companies in the lower price segment who are trying to get into the middle, but they do not succeed. Among the main players there is no fierce competition. Some of the companies that are leaders in the industry of website development a few years ago left or are leaving this direction.
You can highlight the general problem of misunderstanding by the customer what he should get by ordering a website from the studio. Many approach the problem formally, considering a good (sufficient) site a set of pages / pictures with information about the company. It is very difficult to explain why prices for small studios and for leading companies can differ by two orders of magnitude. A site is primarily a marketing tool that should provide communication with the visitor. The development of an effective mechanism for this communication is the main task in creating the site. A site in general may not have a single graphic image, or, conversely, not a single word of text - the main thing is that it solves the problem of the customer. And such a unique solution simply physically cannot be cheap.
A small number of studios with high quality work
Large studios with more than 25 employees in the market are no more than two dozen. As a rule, they are known to large companies-customers and it is among them that tenders are held for projects with large budgets.
Such a small amount is due to low payback (with an increase in staff, management costs increase, which reduces profitability) and the absence of external investors (who are not interested in the market because of their small size and opacity). The acquired name helps to survive, as well as the diversification of the business that occurs with the vast majority of leading companies.
Also this number includes few companies that have financial leverage in the form of a parent structure (a large advertising agency, system integrator, etc.), which provides an influx of customers and financial stability. As a rule, such companies are unprofitable or have low profitability and are needed only because of the provision of a full cycle of services (unwillingness to outsource the client) to the parent structure.
Market geography
The vast majority (more than 50%) of web studios are concentrated in Moscow. Of the twenty leaders in our rating, only one studio is based in St. Petersburg (about 20% of the total number of web studios, the second largest concentration center). This cannot but affect the market situation. Many large regional companies are forced to work with Moscow or St. Petersburg studios due to the lack of qualified developers in the regions.
Customer Competency Growth
Until now, representatives of many companies still have little idea why they need a site and what should be on it.
However, for most large companies (with developed marketing and advertising departments) and companies for which the Internet is an important channel for communication with clients (real estate, automotive industry, tourism, household appliances and electronics, IT companies), a significant increase in the literacy of managers responsible for Internet direction.
This is a key moment of market development. The customer began to understand that the Internet can be profitable, and at the same time realize what he really needs. In addition to the growth of marketing literacy (understanding of goals and how to achieve them), the level of technical literacy is also growing. Often the customer makes requirements for the functionality of the site and its engine, given these parameters when choosing a contractor. Many customers propose using external independent CMS systems to build the site.
The customer began to understand that the site is one of the links in the company's IT infrastructure and should be integrated into this structure. This necessitates the synchronization of information on the site with information in the customer’s corporate information system (data replication mechanisms), and the security requirements of the proposed solutions increase.
Customer literacy in pricing is also growing. If a few years ago the budgets were announced on the principle of “as much as we can tackle”, now the customer is often well-versed in market prices and can argue on the cost of the argument.
Individ www.individ.ru (Yaroslavl - Moscow)
Roman Ovchinnikov, President
Custom solution providers are segmented. Creative design boutiques have already separated. The technological gap between content management system suppliers and integrators is widening, and it becomes impossible to combine these areas within one company. The product of the market leaders is relatively similar, therefore, the main differences are in the field of service delivery. Web systems themselves are becoming increasingly integrated and affect the Internet, Extranet and Intranet environments.
Increase in the volume of “repeat” projects and “development” budgets in the total volume
If several years ago the overwhelming market share was occupied by the creation of new sites, now the situation is changing. The vast majority of large and medium-sized companies, which, in view of the specifics of the business, the Internet can be useful, already have their own sites. Therefore, a significant part of their budgets goes to the development of the current site and the creation of satellite projects, as well as to rework existing projects. The vast majority of tenders with a large budget (with the exception of large startups) involve either a redesign (in the broad sense of the term) or a contract for servicing customer projects.
ADV / web-engineering www.adv.ru (Moscow)
Alexey Mukhin, Marketing Director
At the moment, two main areas have clearly stood out in the web development market: the development of large information systems based on turnkey solutions and the organization of marketing communications. The second direction is currently experiencing a turning point associated with a deeper understanding of communication with the audience. Result: the emergence of more promotional projects, projects aimed at accumulating an audience, marketing on blogs and other not quite traditional tools.
A small number of specialized media and analytical information
The market is experiencing an acute shortage of analytical information. The only specialized publication - “The Age of the Internet” (www.ageofweb.ru) contains a catalog of studios, accumulates information on new projects and press releases, but does not provide the reader with any analytical information, acting as an “extras”. Many mass media devoted to IT topics in general publish various market news, but no one provides systematic information.
This negatively affects the transparency of the market as well as the possibility of an influx of external investors into the market.
As a rule, web-studio employees who are formally engaged in marketing are actually only responsible for sales and have a very vague idea of the market as a whole and its competitors in particular.
“Portrait” of an average web studio
Let's try to describe the number and composition of companies providing services in the market of website development.
Number and composition of players
Currently, there are more than one thousand professional operating companies in Runet that provide services in the field of website development.
By “operating” companies we mean companies consisting of at least 3-4 people and producing at least 2-3 sites per year.
The total mass of studios is very heterogeneous, but there are three main “echelons” among it:
3rd tier. Small studios with a staff of 3-10 people and a budget of up to 2-3 thousand dollars for an average corporate website (* definition see below). As a rule, low-qualified personnel work in such studios and they cannot ensure the high quality of the work performed. The number of such studios is about one thousand.
2nd tier. Mid-sized studios with a staff of 10-20 people. A typical budget is $ 5-10 thousand. Many of these studios are capable of providing good quality work and often compete with first-tier studios. Some of these studios went the way of “factory sites”, when the company produces a large number of standard projects of a low level (a typical example is the company “Sema.ru”). The volume of this group is about 70 companies.
1st tier. Leading group of companies. Studios with a permanent staff of more than 20 people and an average budget of 10-15 thousand dollars. Such studios can guarantee high quality work. Most of these studios try to diversify their business and provide clients with a more complete range of services (for example, corporate identity development, industrial design, printing services, software development services, etc.). These studios serve the majority of large brand companies and often intersect at tenders. The number of such companies is about 20.
It makes sense to segment many companies according to other indicators, for example, industries (for example, ADV / web-engineering company works with almost all major players in the real estate market, Lebedev Studio has a large number of banking and financial institutions in its portfolio, etc.).
Many customers choose a contractor according to the industry principle (who made the site to the leaders, who made the best sites), reasonably believing that these companies will be able to provide the desired result for them.
Some companies can be divided according to the types of sites produced: promotional projects, corporate portals, online stores, online media, etc. Each type of project has its own specifics and, as a rule, the studio prefers to make projects of any particular type. When choosing a contractor, the customer often pays attention to the composition of the types of sites in the portfolio.
AIST / NetCat www.aist.ru (Moscow)
Dmitry Vasiliev, General Director
I would single out four types of companies operating in the market: the first echelon (for example, Lebedev Studio, Aktis, RBC-Soft; projects worth tens, and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars), middle peasants (units-tens of thousands), small companies (hundreds and thousands of units) and a rather large layer of "private traders" (hundreds of dollars). However, recently the borders between these groups are not as clear as they were three years ago. It is also worth noting the trend towards specialization, when companies offering all-in-one go into a narrow niche. From well-known examples, one can cite companies such as Defa (in its services, which emphasized design), Bitrix (which ceased to engage in website development and focused on developing CMS).
The number of employees in the state according to the survey
According to the survey, more than 70% of the studios have less than 10 employees.
Studios with the number of full-time employees more than 25-30 people in the market no more than twenty.
At the same time, it is necessary to make an allowance for the fact that the most active companies took part in the survey (medium and large, as a rule), which slightly overestimates the real figure.
Niche Price Surveys
The cost of developing a simplified corporate website (2 design templates, 1 Flash block on the main page, 15-20 final pages, product catalog for 30-40 items, search, site map, feedback form, news publication system). The vast majority of companies (almost 80%) operate in the price range from 1 to 5 thousand dollars.
Market size estimation
At the moment, there has not been a single study in Russia that adequately estimates the size of the market for creating sites. Это связано с большим количеством небольших студий, которые существенно размывают рынок и чья деятельность с трудом поддается какому-либо анализу.
Кроме того, на рынке не принято озвучивать бюджеты, которые заказчики тратят на оплату услуг веб-студий, также как и веб-студии никогда не выдают полной информации о своих финансовых показателях.
Наша цель – дать приблизительную оценку годового объема рынка создания сайтов в Рунете за 2005г., используя для этого мнения экспертов (сотрудников компаний-игроков рынка) и собственные аналитические выкладки.
Попробуем разобраться в результатах и попытаться дать суммарную оценку. Около 30% профессионалов оценивают объем рынка мене 10 млн. долл. в год. Эта сумма выглядит неправдоподобной хотя бы потому, что только 10-15 “топовых” компаний, имеющих миллионные обороты набирают более 10 млн. годового оборота.
То, что такие компании есть, показывает простой расчет – при средней стоимости разработки сайта в 15 000 $ (для первой двадцатки студий эта ценовая ниша вполне актуальна) и среднем количестве новых сайтов около 3 в мес. (по пресс-релизам и анонсам), годовой оборот составляет более полумиллиона. Прибавляя к этой сумме работы по поддержке и развитию ресурсов, а также объемы работ по слабо афишируемым проектам (например, госзаказам или локализациям), получаем примерно миллион оборота для средней компании из первого эшелона.
5% участников опроса оценивают объем рынка в 10-20 млн. долл. Учитывая количество компаний, действующих на рынке (более тысячи), эта сумма также выглядит заниженной.
Попробуем разбить общую массу студий на 3 основных сегмента и оценить суммарный оборот компаний по каждому из сегментов:
Первый эшелон – около 20 крупнейших компаний, имена которых всегда “на слуху”. Объем этого сегмента можно примерно оценить в 10-15 млн. долл., учитывая оборот каждой из студий (прямая оценка по средней стоимости проекта и количеству проектов). Такая оценка возможна только для студий этого сегмента из-за непрозрачности объема и ценовой политики всех остальных игроков.
Активно действующие на рынке компании (около 70 студий, которые так или иначе мелькают в новостях, пресс-релизах и анонсах). Средний оборот таких студий по данным опроса составляет около 70 000$ в год. Таким образом, объем данного сегмента можно оценить примерно в 5 млн. долл.
Остальная масса компаний (около 1000 компаний) имеет средний оборот по данным опроса около 20 000$ в год. Объем этого сегмента равен приблизительно 20 млн. долл.
Суммируя, можно получить приблизительную оценку объема рынка создания сайтов в Рунете в 35-40 млн. долл. за 2005г., с чем согласна большая часть принявших участие в опросе экспертов.
Такой результат выглядит достаточно правдоподобно с учетом оценки объема рынка Интернет-рекламы (около 60 млн. долл. за 2005 год по оценке АКАР). Объем рынка Интернет-рекламы более просто поддается оценке. Во-первых, на рынке нет такого огромного количества мелких игроков. Деятельность большинства крупных компаний вполне прозрачна. Во-вторых, есть возможность отслеживать объемы не только по рекламным бюджетам заказчиков, но и по прибыли крупнейших рекламных площадок (таких, как Яндекс, Рамблер, Mail.ru и пр.), которые регулярно публикуют информацию по своим финансовым показателям.
Основные тенденции развития рынка
На основе вышеизложенной информации попробуем выделить основные тенденции, по которым будет развиваться рынок в ближайшие 2-3 года:
Рост компетентности заказчика
Постепенно сайты перестают делать с абстрактами целями “чтобы был” и начинают ставить перед ними конкретные маркетинговые задачи. Это обязывает менеджеров Интернет-проектов на стороне заказчика действовать максимально эффективно, что ведет к росту их компетентности в этой области. Заказчик требует отдачи от вложенных средств, что обязывает его и подрядчика более утилитарно подходить к поставленной задаче, что в конечном итоге приводит к росту числа успешных проектов и повышению качества оказываемых услуг.
Студии, которые не смогут эффективно решить задачу, стоящую перед клиентом, будут вынуждены перебираться в более низкие ценовые категории и штамповать типовые решения.
Интеграция сайта в общую IT-инфраструктуру компаний
С ростом числа внедрений информационных систем (ERP, CRM и т.п.), автоматизирующих производство, современный корпоративный сайт крупной компании должен будет занять свое место в ее информационной инфраструктуре. Это не означает потери “самостоятельности” сайта как маркетингового инструмента, но при этом предъявляют определенные требования к механизмам его существования. Студии, которые не будут готовы обеспечить создание проектов, отвечающих этим требованиям, рано или поздно уйдут с рынка больших бюджетов либо будут вынуждены мириться со сборкой своих проектов на сторонних платформах (часто силами внутреннего IT-отдела заказчика).
Использование сторонних CMS-систем
Количество сторонних, универсальных CMS-систем, на которых будут собираться сайты, возрастет. Это вызвано тем, что большое количество средних студий имеет свои доморощенные наработки, которые не отвечают современным требованиям по функциональности и переносимости. Ряд крупных студий (например, Город-Инфо с продуктом Axiom.Portal, Actis с продуктом Webbuilder) будет пытаться развить свои CMS-системы до статуса независимого программного продукта. Также использование сторонних универсальных CMS, как правило, упростит задачу интеграции сайта в информационное пространство компании-заказчика.
Уплотнение рынка
С повышением уровня требований, предъявляемых заказчиком, вся масса некрупных студий перестанет быть конкурентоспособной и постепенно прекратит свое существование, либо будет действовать сугубо в низком ценовом диапазоне. Планка вхождения на серьезный будет рынок неуклонно повышаться. В связи с этим постепенно будет увеличиваться прозрачность рынка, более четко выделяться его лидеры.
Диверсификация бизнеса крупных компаний
Крупные игроки рынка будут стремиться к диверсификации своего бизнеса. Во-первых, оказание смежных услуг (медиапланирование и реклама, поисковая оптимизация, контент-провайдинг, разработка фирменного стиля и пр.) позволит обеспечить полный цикл Интернет-услуг для клиента.
Во-вторых, наработанный брэнд, а также производственные мощности и база клиентов позволят развиваться в другие области, такие как оффлайновая реклама (полиграфия, радио, TV), разработка ПО, ландшафтный, промышленный дизайн, дизайн интерьеров и пр.
Некоторые компании достигли потолка возможности дальнейшего роста на рынке (при условии окупаемости), что вынуждает их развиваться вширь.
Рост числа компаний-субподрядчиков, работающих с клиентом через веб-студии
В ближайшее время будет увеличиваться число независимых компаний, предлагающих услуги-сателлиты (такие как контент-провайдинг, SEO, PR-сопровождение) для средних студий, которые не могут позволить себе содержать соответствующий департамент, но стремятся к повышению качества оказываемых услуг.
Увеличение количества средних и крупных студий в регионах
Этот процесс идет уже сейчас, объемы регионального рынка растут опережающими темпами. Спрос достаточно велик, и рынок вынужден на это реагировать. Кроме того, сохранится тенденция открытия региональных представительств крупных московских компаний.
Источник: 2007.tagline.ru
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