Dotcoms dealing in raw information are tipped to be the success stories of 2002.
A Nielsen/NetRatings analyst has suggested sites will thrive by paying attention to the core value of the web as an information source.
The past year has been a testing ground for many dotcoms, with high-profile casualties such as Napster, Excite, Breathe, Beenz and BT.com.
It also saw an end to the dotcom frenzy, when companies founded on a hot idea and funded to the hilt, burnt their way through working capital to insolvency.
Winners throughout the past year have included Google, Friends Reunited, AOL and Expedia.
These websites have survived because they trade in information, says Tom Ewing, of Nielsen//NetRatings.
"The sites that are doing badly tend to be second-tier portal sites. Napster enjoyed incredible success and then collapsed after it was forced to change its offering from an everything-available site to a filtered-content site," he said.
"The sites that are thriving as the Internet struggles through economic instability seem to be those that appreciate its original potential as a vehicle for information, rather than treating it as a souped-up television or shopping mall."
Meanwhile, Forrester Research estimates European online retail spending over the holiday season will grow 160 per cent on the same time last year with £2.5 billion sterling pouring into purchases.
Gartner, a research company, predicts online holiday shopping will exceed £17 billion sterling, a 39 per cent increase on the same period last year.
PA