Social networks, technology, marketing and credit crunch [kwiqq]

Posted on | September 22, 2008 | View Comments

Market Watch is reporting that Microsoft just bought back its $40 bn worth of shares from Morgan Stanley. Just one of the statistic which make you think how the current credit crunch is really affecting Web and Technology markets. It seems to us that things are improving for the web technology as whole in comparison to the general market. Although the spend on IT hardware and services is decreasing the overall spending on IT is planning to go up by 5.4%.

Forrestors also reported that next half of this year would see further growth:

And because IT spending, despite the downturn, is expected to continue growing, spending on everything from mobile to software-oriented architecture technologies is expected to accelerate rapidly once CIOs feel more confident in the economy.

Reports are also suggesting that during the credit crunch outsourcing would rule. There will be more and more companies looking to send their development abroad in order to cut costs. That would mean we are sending more jobs to the East, affecting mainly contractors based locally. Also more and more companies will be looking for a out of the box solution i.e. SaaS (Software as a service).

Saying that there will always be a demand for social technology for marketing purpose. If companies are thinking ‘maybe we should save that extra bit of cash on marketing’ then the advice on Northhampton Chamber seems to suggest the opposite:

Research analysts McGraw Hill studied 600 companies’ marketing spend during the 1980 – 1985 US recession. and found that the business to business firms that maintained or increased marketing spend averaged significantly higher growth, both during and for three years after the recession.

Although the trading software market might/will have a great hit with collapse of major Investment Banks. There seems to be opportunities with that Investment Banks merging, which would require merging of systems like Merill Lynch and Bank of America, Barclays and Lehmans and other deals which will be announced soon.

Another good article from Venture Beats where VCs seem to suggest that IT market has actually done fairly well. Saying that startups will have to prove their business plans and concentrate on the source of revenue (Fantastic advice !). For the short time companies will have to forget about buyouts and IPOs (not surprising).

Over all we feel this entire credit crunch will just correct several things in the market (financial, IT..) which we wish weren’t there in the first place !

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