Looked at over a longer horizon, the cost-effectiveness of corporate internet investment hasn't simply declined—the way it's calculated has changed. Understanding that shift is more meaningful than arguing over whether a website is still useful.
1. The early formula was simple
During the growth phase of the PC internet, the cost for a company to get online consisted mainly of building a site and a bit of maintenance, and traffic acquisition depended largely on organic indexing by search engines. At the time, corporate websites were few while the number of internet users was growing rapidly, and that balance of supply and demand kept the cost of capturing attention low. All a company really needed to do was "own" a site that could be accessed continuously.
2. User time has migrated
With the spread of the mobile internet, user time has been diverted from the search box to social media, short videos, and live streaming. Meanwhile, public statistics show that the total number of websites in China has kept falling since its peak. What companies feel directly is this: for the same investment, organic visits are shrinking while the cost per paid placement is rising.
The more striking change is the makeup of operating costs. What used to be mainly a website-building expense now includes content production, upkeep across multiple platforms, and media budgets—all of which require continuous spending.
3. The unit of measurement for cost-effectiveness has changed
If you treat the official website purely as a traffic funnel, its cost-effectiveness is indeed falling—because it no longer serves that function. But look at it through a different lens: on the traffic side, unit prices are up, yet trackability has improved enormously, so campaign performance can be measured; on the user-relationship side, a single visit can settle into an asset you can reach again, rather than a one-off impression; on the conversion-path side, the journey has shifted from "search—website—purchase" to "content—trust—website or private domain—purchase"; and on the core-capability side, technical barriers are dropping, while content and operations capabilities have become the dividing line.
In other words, the website's role has extended from being a traffic engine to being the step where information is confirmed and trust is carried forward.
4. What companies making adjustments are focusing on
Use the website to receive customers, not to attract traffic. Stop chasing visit-volume metrics and instead turn it into a node with complete information and easy lead capture, where customers who have learned about you through multiple channels can complete their confirmation.
Use channels you can reach again and again to dilute acquisition costs. Bring users acquired in the public domain into channels where you can stay in touch over the long term, so the value of a single campaign is released across many later interactions.
Treat content as infrastructure. Content no longer serves only the official website; it is scattered across the places where users spend their time, while the website becomes the node where that content ultimately converges.
5. Conclusion
The cost-effectiveness of corporate internet investment has turned from an arithmetic problem with a standard answer into a decision problem that requires judgment based on your own business. The real question is not "should we have a website," but where customers spend their time, how the company can deliver value there, and in what way trust is ultimately established.