Web-hosting market development status and its value as an indicator of a country's e-readiness

A country's e-readiness is essentially a measure of its business environment, a collection of factors that indicate how amenable a market is to Internet-based opportunities. An e-readiness assessment is based on several quantitative criteria, and among them the ICT market development indicators are considered as the most influential. Studies in the past have shown that the well-known indicators used for assessing the level of ICT market development in countries with emerging economy are not directly applicable. This paper provides another insight into the level of ICT market development in an emerging economy by analysing the adoption of web-hosting services in the country's business sector. The potential of such assessment to be as an indicator of the level of ICT development in a country is analysed. The underlying study of the web-hosting development was carried out as part of the European project WEBHOSTS. The approach applied and the findings were intended to be used as a decision support in locating and managing some of the risks in e-business development and potential investment by new entrants in a region that is accessing the developed part of Europe.