The Growth of Industry Web Portals: A Case Study

With the development of the Internet, professionals in different industries or specialized areas have an increasing need for information exchange and social support. Therefore, industry or specialized web portals present a new opportunity in the Internet business. This paper presents a growth model for industry web portals. The model contains five stages: preparation stage, attraction stage, contagion stage, entrenchment stage, and defense stage. The model also gives the actions and strategies to be taken and used in each stage. An industry web portal for engineering supervision, testing, and inspection professionals in China is analyzed. This paper contributes to the industry web portals practice by a set of guidelines that can be applied by practitioners in the industry web portals business.