The Internet doesn’t give a damn about the recession
In 2008 the stock market fell into shambles, the real estate market tumbled, big companies announced big layoffs, VC investors became more careful, and the entire world economy went downhill. It’s enough to put a sour face on the most optimistic person.
But now contrast this with what happened with the Internet in 2008:
- The number of websites increased by 20%.
- The number of domain names increased by 19%.
- Not to mention that there were more than 1.4 billion people on the Internet, a number that will keep growing.
So, while everything else shrinks and decreases, the Internet just keeps growing. It probably isn’t growing as fast as it would if the overall world economy was blossoming, but it IS growing at a healthy rate.
This would indicate that the Internet as a whole operates on a separate level from the general economy.
Cut back on the doom and gloom, will you?
Things simply are not as bleak as you might imagine from watching and reading the News. And we are speaking from our own experience here, as a team of Internet entrepreneurs that it is going well for.
We are frankly a bit tired of the overly pessimistic picture that is being painted every day in the news, at least as it concerns our part of the world: the Internet. By permeating the image of financial doom and gloom, without any counterbalance, this kind of reporting may actually be making things worse by scaring consumers from consuming.
We’re not saying that the media should stop reporting on the recession, but rather that perhaps it’s going a bit overboard.
More people, more opportunities
If you liken the Internet to a market place, there are now more and more people in it. Their wallets may be a bit tighter than they were a year ago, but there are more of them. There is plenty of opportunity for businesses to thrive.
In other words, don’t let the recession (or watching the News) scare you away from doing business on the Internet. On the contrary, right now it might be the best place to be.
(If you’re interested in more 2008 Internet numbers, check out this post from last week.)
Photo by Phil Romans.
Pingdom’s Podcast is a weekly show about Internet, web, security, and mobile stuff. 
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DomoBlogger
January 27th, 2009 at 5:11 am
Totally agree. I am a freelancer – webmaster, and I don’ feel any recession herem in Internet. Moreover, my own projects are growing. Advertisers have become more active…
Paul
January 28th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
I also think that the internet is like another TV channel, or an alternative for TV and other stuff like that. People surf the net, have sites etc as entertainment I believe. A bit like how a lot of people go to stores and look around, not to buy but to be entertained.
Craig
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:34 am
I think the 1.4B is from comScore’s report for December. Did the other two statistics come from the same source?
The number of websites increased by 20%.
The number of domain names increased by 19%.
Online Radio
May 9th, 2009 at 4:48 am
I also think that the internet will not suffer because of the current global crisis.
Finance Guru
July 9th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Internet cannot be affected by global crisis. People will still continue to use google to search for solutions to global Crisis. They will also find for better jobs and they will advertise their busineses to increase their finances.
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August 1st, 2009 at 9:25 pm
the economic recession has been pretty hard on us. there is some good progress on the economy this year. i just hope that the economy will continue to recover in the following months and years.
Jenna
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:13 am
the Economic recession made a lot of jobless people in my own country. We could only hope that our economy becomes strong again.