Here are the most relevant reports on Digital Economy issues published on February worldwide. This month, and due to the MWC, there is a strong mobile perspective. Have a look!
DIGITAL ECONOMY
During the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, GSMA presented a new report on the mobile economy, showing the perspectives of mobile worldwide. More than 4.6 billion mobile users are expected by 2020, covering almost 60% of the population.
The report is a clear bet on mobile contribution to global GDP and employment, improving economic but also social welfare of worldwide citizens.
The growth of the Global Mobile Internet Economy, Boston Consulting Group, February 2015
This is a BCG report, commissioned by Google, that examines the economic impact of the digital economy based on mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, and wearables) mainly, excluding economic activity generated by the broader mobile technology industry, such as revenues generated by phone calls, SMS “texting,” the manufacturing of non-Internet-enabled devices and capital expenditures for non digital data activities on mobile networks.
The report analyses the situation in 13 different countries, which are: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The main conclusions are that Mobile Internet contributes more than $700 billion to economies of 13 major countries. It also shows that future contribution to mobile Internet revenue growth will be the apps, content, and services of the mobile ecosystem, supported by the expansion of mobile shopping and advertising.
You can download the report here.
EU’s digital economy and society index 2015, European Commission, February 2015.
The European Commission has published its report on DESI (Digital Economy and Society Index), measuring Europe’s digital performance and tracks the evolution of EU member states in digital competitiveness. DESI is a composite index that summarizes relevant indicators such as Connectivity, Human Capital, Use of Internet, Integration of Digital Technology and digital public Services.
It offers a good perspective on the digitalization of EU member states, based on data collected in 2014 and you can check global benchmarks but also by country.
There is also a nice infography here on the main outcomes.
To see national results, click here.
INTERNET OF THINGS
As the Internet of Things (IoT) is taking more relevance in the economy, GSMA developed with KRC Research a special report on the impact of IoT, indicating that approximately one in four people in Germany, Japan, the UK and the US already own a connected device such as a smart meter (28 per cent), security system (23 per cent), lighting system (23 per cent), or health monitor (23 per cent), underscoring the growing impact of wireless connectivity and the Internet of Things on the lives of consumers.
And this trend will not stop in the future, it will increase, due to the development of so many useful services and applications that could economically and socially profit to all future users.
State of the market, The Internet of Things 2015, Verizon, February 2015.
Good report with sectorial infographics showing how the IoTs are transforming different industries such as Energy & Utility, Manufacturers, Smart cities and Transportation.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report analyses entrepreneurship situation worldwide through a wide geographic survey to entrepreneurs. For 2014, the report finds positive trends and high levels of entrepreneurial optimism, ambition and innovation which are essential to all the worldwide economies.
The situation in the EU seems to be quite inferior compared to other geographical areas and gives some keys on how to act to foster entrepreneurship.
DIGITAL SKILLS
This report draws the situation in the UK on digital skills and warns the UK Government that more needs to be done to prepare the UK for the future labour market, in order to grab the digital economy opportunities but also to place UK as a digital leader.
The report proposes to act since the infancy on digital literacy in the schools, to prepare future labour market through digital skills and to work for more digital inclusion with clear gender policies.
CYBERSECURITY
A curious report published by the Global Commission on Internet Governance (CIGI) on the dark Web and the need to act in this area to better fight against cyber threats and reinforce Internet Governance in the future.
This Eurobarometer report analyses EU citizens’ experience and perceptions of cyber security issues, and how these have changed since the previous survey of May-June 2013. More than 27.000 people surveyed around the EU on their use of internet, their experiences of cybercrime and their worries based on what they experienced.
OPEN DATA
Open government data (OGD) is one of the key political objective and commitment for many countries, as it is considered as a source of economic growth and improvement of public services. The OECD is working on this issue since some years already and it publishes now a report presenting the different open government strategies and practices in Latin America to highlight the best practices in the region.
This report gathers information on 86 different countries about the public policies and best practices on Open Government Data. It highlights the relevance of open public data and the need to be accessible to improve public governance.
COPYRIGHT
This report issued by the UK Intellectual Property Office present an interesting international comparison of different approaches to online copyright enforcement in different countries, such as Canada, Brazil, France, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, UK, USA and South Korea. This is a good overview on the current status about the copyright in the online environment and an evaluation of their effectiveness.
