Sweden: Exclusive Shared Hosting and Website Builder Tips

The Nordic people were early adopters of Internet technology, and today, Sweden and other Nordic countries have very active, yet unique digital markets.

Svenska Domäner is one of the earliest digital representatives of the region. Established in 1991, the company has been in the hosting business for a while now, selling domains and hosting in the Nordic markets, mainly in Sweden.

As part of our 'Shared Hosting Tips' series, we’ve met with Lina Massawe, the marketing manager of the company, who helped us understand the Swedish market a little bit better.

Sweden and Nordic Hosting

Digital Sweden

The internet was adopted in Sweden in its early days, and today, the country is one of the most digital places in Europe, boasting a 95% Internet penetration rate. Almost all young people use the Internet, and most companies have a digital presence in one form or another. According to Lina, .SE and .NU are two of the most popular domain names in Sweden: 1.7 million of the country's 10 million population (around 15%) have registered .se and .nu domains. One user has 1-2 domain names on average, typically preferring .SE as the main domain, and then buying something on top of it.

Hosting Prices

In Sweden, hosting prices are a bit higher than in other places in Europe, around 500 SEK, and people notice this. Lisa notes that the problem with the hosting market is that it’s complex, and it is often hard to communicate what quality means, and what are the differences between high- and low-quality hosting services. Although there is a culture of trust in Sweden, and people trust the companies to deliver a good quality of service, the pricing of the product matters.

Swedes Think Locally

Because of the culture of trust in the country, when it comes to choosing a shared hosting service, Swedes prefer going with local services. The main reasons are the speed and support in Swedish, but also the security. As more and more people and businesses in Sweden move their data from home to clouds, they look for close-to-home locations to store it. And more often than not, they prefer to keep it with local service providers as they know the market better. This is particularly true for smaller companies and startups that are looking for companies that’d cater specifically to their needs. Because of this, the Swedish hosting market is somehow a closed system.

Customer support is also local

Because people prefer local companies, the support is mainly in Swedish too, although English is also easily available. When calling from other Nordic countries, customers usually start with their language, and then, depending on how similar it is to Swedish, they often switch to English. What’s interesting is that no 24/7 support is available: Sweden as a culture likes to stick to office hours, and Svenska Domäner has found that providing customer support services only during office hours works great. This is also possible because the country is located in one time zone.

Effective communication

A continuous delivery platform, one of the solutions offered by Svenska Domäner, allows users to extend the continuity of servers, thus extending the number of customers without any delay. But how does it help the company’s marketing? According to Lina, it’s a question of communication. Not only for this service but for others as well. The end-user rarely goes too deep into the technicalities, but if you are able to communicate what that means for their business, it can become a good selling point.

Timely communication of different requirements of your business is just as important. 'We learned the hard way the importance of communicating different requirements/policies within the services we sell. As our product life cycles are long, it's essential to clearly communicate when the renewals are done, so that when customers get an invoice they know what they are paying for.'

Don’t sell domains, sell a service

In the shared hosting industry, the money is not so much in the domains per se, but in the services you provide. Understanding how to bundle the domains with hosting or other services can drastically improve your business performance and is a great way to improve sales.

Final Thoughts

For us, this interview was an insightful glimpse into the Swedish parket, with its nuances and peculiarities, and we hope it was as interesting for you as for us! Sweden is a market with a lot of untapped potential, where people trust companies to provide them with quality service, and are ready to pay for it.