A McKinsey Global Survey, "How businesses are using Web 2.0," shows that, while the business press may be all over the 2.0 trend, companies themselves are still slow to invest. Among the responses from the 2,847 surveyed global executives:
- 80% use or are planning to use Web services, including software that enables systems to communicate with one another;
- 48% are investing in collective intelligence;
- 47% are investing in peer-to-peer networking, which enables the sharing of music, video and text files;
- Only 37% use or are planning to use social networking;
- 35% report investments in both RSS and podcasts;
- 33% are investing in wikis;
- 32% are investing in blogs;
- 70% of surveyed companies rely on Web 2.0 technologies for communicating with customers;
- 51% use them to talk with suppliers and business partners; and
- 75% rely on the technologies for internal collaboration.
These findings, which were reported in a BusinessWeek article titled, "Executives Remain Wary of Web 2.0," suggest that communications professionals must continue their efforts to argue that the rewards of online technologies far outweigh the costs. After all, as Medialink COO Larry Thomas said in response to the PR News/Medialink video survey results, "Specifically, when we are talking about the Web, people need to take a closer look and understand how cost-effective online video content can be."