I am guessing that companies such as Google and Yahoo! have their own internet web development divisions, but what about other companies? Websites like gap.com and a slew of other companies which have very impressive websites – who did the web design for these?
There are actuallly 3 main areas of business: Web Designing, Web Developing, and Web Maintaining.
Depending on the business requirement, if they also operates their business through the internet (eg. sells products online), then most MNCs or big companies will have an in-house team to oversees their company website cos’ business needs to be running 24 hours 7 days.
If it is only for informational purposes, most companies, regardless if it is big or small, will prefer to outsource that to a design firm. Package usually comes with the 3 main areas, prices differ depending on the level of design and technical involved. Sometimes, web maintainance will come under another company. There are some local firms who will hire just a web designer to design and maintain their website.
Search engines like Goggle and Yahoo are based in US, including their teams. Local offices work via their in-house structure for daily updating.
You can actually see which company is maintaining an organisation’s website at the bottom of the web page.