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Report: Online Business Powers U.S. Economy

October 28, 2009 (CAP Newswire) — Although it’s the time of year when Internet stocks usually perform well, some big names in online business are doing much better than anticipated — especially given the so-called recession in which the U.S. and much of the rest of the world finds itself it.

(Or is it because of the recession?)

Amazon, Netflix, and Priceline are among the online retailers who have just reported enormous financial gains. (And are all powerful affiliate marketing brands, coincidentally.) In particular, Amazon’s shares have hit an all-time record, up 24.3 percent for the week even as Wall Street stumbled. Similarly, Priceline’s stocks have surged a whopping 140 percent this year.

"The Internet sector in general has had a bounce back this year in both stock performance and their financials. The companies were more resilient during the downturn and are now having an acceleration in their growth levels thanks to more evidence of an economic recovery," said Frederick Moran, an analyst with The Benchmark Co, as quoted in an article from CNN Money. (Read it here.)

And there’s lots of room for growth: “Online commerce companies still only control a small percentage of the overall retail market. According to figures from the Census Bureau, e-commerce sales totaled $32.4 billion in the second quarter, just 3.6% of the $906 billion in total retail sales,” the CNN Money article continues.

It should be noted that there’s a very fundamental difference in this stock surge and the one that happened ten years ago … and eventually came crashing down, taking a lot of economic stability. In 1999, most big online names were built on speculation, and had yet to make a profit. This time around, the companies have foundations and are profitable. The structure, in other words, is much more secure.

So what’s this mean for online gaming affiliate marketers? It means that online consumer confidence is very strong; even if your portfolio is focused only on gaming and not on any traditional retail offerings, these reports offer comfort that more and more people are choosing to spend their money on the Internet rather than out in the brick-and-mortar world. That gives affiliate marketers security and a reason to continue expanding … and also possibly offers some additional ideas to U.S.-based affiliates with less options than those based in Europe, Asia or Australia.