Every year the Federal Ministry of Economy examines how Germany performs in comparison to 15 other countries in terms of ICT and Internet business. In the monitoring report Digital Economy 2014, Germany occupied the fiercely contested middle ground, remaining in fifth place, which was separated from 10th place (France) by a mere three points. The frontrunner remained the USA with 81 out of a possible 100 index points, followed by South Korea with 54 points. Third place was shared by Great Britain, on its way up, and Japan, each with 53 index points.
The ranking of the digital economy according to performance is carried out by TNS Infratest together with the Centre for European Economic Research, on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economy. At the presentation in Berlin, project leader Tobias Weber particularly highlighted Germany’s shortcomings in the expansion of high-speed networks: He claimed that in the mid- to long-term this will put companies off from settling here. When it comes to glass fibre networks, with a quota of just one percent Germany is well and truly beaten by other EU states. Still, around 34.6 percent of Germans have a broadband Internet connection, primarily via DSL and cable. However, he said that further expansion and transfer from copper to glass fibre technology is still important.
Nevertheless, the study paints a confident picture of development: With a share of 4.3 percent, Germany comes in at fourth place for global ICT revenue. Over 91,000 companies and around one million employees ensure that the ICT industry, with a proportion of 4.7 percent of commercial added value, remains level with the automobile industry in Germany and ahead of the mechanical engineering industry. In 2013, IT and telecom companies also invested around EUR 15.4 billion, or 3.6 percent of all investments into the commercial economy.
The complete study can be accessed for free as a PDF in the Federal Ministry of Economics media library and from the knowledge forum at www.tns-infratest.com.