‘Europe is missing the digital revolution’

Europe is not investing enough in the Web. Out of 35 countries, only 9 have at least half of their companies online. And in terms of ecommerce it’s not particularly better. The United Kingdom and the Czech Republic are performing best, although only 11% of their businesses present online have the internet opted as (extra) sales channel.

These statistics are amongst the findings of Email-Brokers, an Belgian company focused on e-database management and email marketing. According to this study (pdf), the great majority of European companies shows a fragrant lack of interest when it comes to investing in an online presence. “It is high time that parliamentarians put the opportunities offered by the digital economy on the agenda, rather than constantly focusing on data protection”, says William Vande Wiele, CEO of Email-Brokers.

Germany, Belgium, Netherlands: lots of online companies
Email-Brokers looked at the internet development trends across Europe last year and it found out that Germany (64%), Belgium (63%) and the Netherlands (59%) are, just like the year before, the European countries with the highest percentage of online companies. The lowest percentages can be found in Eastern Europe, with countries like Lithuania (16%), Albania (18%) and Serbia (19%).

In terms of social media presence, Belgium is also amongst the best performing countries, with 18% of companies (present online) that are active on Facebook and Twitter. Spain (25%), Sweden (24%) and the Czech Republic (19%) perform even better than the Belgians.