The changing ways that small businesses are using the Internet will offer new opportunities fortechnology suppliers, according to a new study released Monday by IDC.

IDC, a US high-market research firm, found that as the Internetbecomes more integral to small business operations, more advanced capabilities such as tracking site performance and providing access to more comprehensive resources for visitors will be of interest to those looking to the Internet for support of a wide range of business activities.

"The Internet has become a critical communications and promotional resource for the largest share of small businesses, changing the way they reach customers and prospects," said RaymondBoggs, vice president, Small/Medium Business research at IDC.

He said small business spending on Web hosting alone is growingby 9.5 percent annually and will top 7.4 billion US dollars by 2009.

The IDC study found that Internet access will become more widespread and roughly 80 percent of all small businesses will have Internet access by the end of 2009

The study also found that Internet use for promotional purposeswill continue to increase and five out of six online small businesses will have a home page by 2009

But the market research firm said online selling, while increasingly easy to implement, will remain relatively rare and only a quarter of small businesses will use ecommerce by 2009.

Source: Xinhua