Growth Forecast for Digital Industry in Europe

BRUSSELS,
September 24: Europe’s digital economy is expected to grow by 18 percent each
year, reaching 436 billion euros by 2012 according to a new study published by the
global management consulting firm Booz & Company.

As
the study “Digital Confidence—Securing the Next Wave of Digital Growth”,
commissioned by Liberty Global, points out, this growth can take place provided
a number of industries in Europe—advertising, e-commerce and access
providers—adopt measures to sustain consumer confidence.

These
include what Booz & Company refers to as the four pillars of digital
confidence, and they are: assure network integrity and quality of service for
consumers and related businesses to protect technology platforms and ensure
connectivity, protect privacy and personal data by preventing unauthorized
access to consumers’ private electronic data, protect minors from exposure to
undesired content and exploitation, and prevent piracy and theft of copyrighted
content.

As
the study points out,
up to now, digital growth in Europe
was mainly based on higher user numbers, new infrastructure roll out or
technical innovations. This, however, is set to change. In the next phase of market
growth value will increasingly shift from the access business, such as selling
broadband connections, to more advanced services: e-commerce, content and
advertising.

As
a consequence, future growth relies to a large extent on users increasing their
usage of new services as well as their online spend rather than penetrating
households with new technologies. According to the study this brings
significant challenges for the industry, in particular for network operators as
user behavior tends to be very fickle in the digital world.

—By
Anna Carugati