Analyst Profile Detailed
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Joshua Budd
Program Manager, Communications, IDC CEMA
Team:
eBusiness Strategies
Telecommunications
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Joshua Budd joined IDC CEMA in January 2000. As a program manager for the Communications Group, Budd is responsible for covering Internet access and IP services in Central and Eastern Europe.
While at IDC, Budd has published numerous studies with market-sizing data and forecasts on residential and business Internet access, broadband services, and Web hosting. The studies have covered a range of technologies and services including dial-up, leased lines, DSL, cable, WiFi, fixed wireless access, satellite, metro ethernet, managed Web hosting, and co-location. His research has also analyzed the regulatory environment in the region and its impact on the development of Internet access services.
Budd has participated in a number of consulting projects in Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Recently, he led a consulting project for a network hardware vendor; the project sized and forecast the markets for switches, routers, and WLAN equipment in nine countries in Central and Southeast Europe. He also led a regional study on PBX equipment, which sized and forecast spending on traditional, IP-enabled, and pure-IP PBX technologies and services.
In the Middle East, Budd participated in an end-user study of WAN managers in Saudi Arabia. The study analyzed technology adoption and usage patterns for managed data network services, Internet access, and Web hosting among businesses. His research in the Saudi market also included forecasting the market for residential and business dial-up, DSL, and leased-line Internet access services.
Budd has been a featured speaker at conferences and client briefings. His analysis has been quoted on television and in a variety of regional news and trade publications.
Prior to joining IDC, Budd spent two years as a site manager and editor for a Prague-based Internet media company, which published news and business information on emerging markets in Central Europe, Russia, and China. He also worked as a journalist in Prague, covering industry, finance, and macroeconomic developments in the Czech market.
Budd graduated from the University of Western Ontario in Canada, where he received an Honors BA.
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Frequently Asked Questions
With a market of limited size, what are some of the challenges and opportunities that eCommerce players are facing in the Czech Republic?
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An explosion in recent years of Czech businesses establishing a presence on the Internet indicates entrepreneurs in this country are eager to experiment with new sales opportunities made possible by the World Wide Web. The greatest obstacle they face, however, remains a low Internet penetration level compared to Western markets. With less than 10 percent of the population using the Internet, businesses with online sales services are targeting a small percentage of the population. Still, Internet users in the Czech Republic are typically business oriented and have a higher than average level of disposable income. This segment of the population represents a potentially strong source of end-use sales revenue for local businesses to tap.
| As dot.coms go out of business in Western Europe and the US, how are their Czech equivalents faring?
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Czech eBusinesses have not had access to the kind of venture capital available to companies in the US and Western Europe, which allowed many businesses to expand their operations rapidly without generating any profits. Consequently, Czech eBusinesses have learned from a very early stage to keep expenses at a minimum and develop sustainable revenue streams before expanding beyond their means. While the overall value of the B2C market in the Czech Republic remains small compared to Western countries, most eShops are expecting strong growth in the coming year.
| Who is driving the Internet economy in the Czech Republic, which segment can expect to see strong growth, and what hurdles still need to be overcome?
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Subsidiaries of global PC vendors along with Czech PC vendors are currently producing a significant proportion of total eCommerce revenue in the country, with sales to small- and mid-sized businesses. These companies, along with their clients, have so far been the best equipped to take advantage of new eBusiness technologies. Additionally, the companies benefited from existing sales and distribution channels that they were able to transfer to the Internet.
The market for online sales of office supplies remains relatively untapped, but this is expected to change following the launch of new eMarketplaces that will concentrate their efforts on this segment. Still, the majority of end-users that could benefit from online procurement of office supplies have yet to develop an IT infrastructure sophisticated enough to take advantage of the new eMarketplaces. This will have to change before the market grows to its full potential.
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While eCommerce in the Czech Republic is still very much in its infancy, growing numbers of businesses are starting to utilize the Internet as a new sales channel. IT companies have been the first to adopt eCommerce strategies. But the recent appearance of eMarketplaces in the country will provide other businesses with the technology and services needed to adapt their operations to the Internet.
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