NASDAQ’s Internet Index – Is It Worth Paying Attention To?

Back in November 2007, NASDAQ decided to create an index of the top one hundred companies that were involved in providing services and/or goods on the internet. But has it made enough of a splash – or are there still plenty of people who still haven’t even heard of it, one year on?There is no questioning the fact that this was a good idea, at least in part. But like all good ideas it does have its drawbacks as well, not least of which is that the very nature of it means it really only applies in the US. Still, within that area it does have its place and perhaps we should expect a new index such as this one to take some time in establishing itself.So what does this index tell us? Well in short, it tells us how the top one hundred internet companies that are concerned with internet marketing or other similar services are performing against each other. But since this only applies in that one country we have no way of figuring out how internet businesses are doing as a whole.But maybe it will pave the way for a more global view of the internet market in the future. Most people would agree that while the high street suffers in times of hardship and recession, the internet never really seems to have many problems. Cheaper prices and the absence of queues and other hassles are indicative of every single online business, and that means people are more likely, not less likely, to flock to the internet when money is tight.The NASDAQ internet index can certainly back this up as far as those top performing businesses in the US are concerned, and maybe if a similar system was set up in each individual country – or at least the main performers in this arena – we could start to see how many more internet businesses are doing in the current climate.But as far as the names included on that top one hundred are concerned, there is really no big surprise as to what some of them are. Amazon and Google are both there for example, as are Expedia and eBay – all big names that are known globally. In this sense the NASDAQ index does have value for anyone who lives outside the US, since it gives us a benchmark to compare other sites to. It also allows us to discover what it takes to get on that top one hundred.Now it is true to say that the vast majority of us will never even get close to getting on that list, but studying the businesses that have made it will no doubt help us to build better web marketing businesses ourselves. After all we can see at a glance what has got these businesses to where they are, and that means we can identify how to improve our own businesses – even if they will always remain on a much smaller scale.