Every Fifth Firm in Germany Using Web 2.0

Web 2.0 applications like facebook and twitter have established themselves as information and communication media in our private domain. Today the use of Web 2.0 in business, labelled “Enterprise 2.0”, is increasingly conquering the business world. Every fifth firm in Germany is currently using wikis, blogs, social online networks or collaboration platforms. These are the findings of a current survey conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW). A total of 4,400 firms, which all have more than five staff members, in the manufacturing industry and selected service sectors were surveyed.

"Particularly in the service sectors, in which information and communication as well as the proximity to clients play a major role, many firms are using Web 2.0", says Dr. Irene Bertschek, head of the ZEW research group. The current survey indicates that the sectors IT services and telecommunication services with 62 percent and media services with 39 percent have a pioneering role when it comes to using Web 2.0. The retailing industry comes in last with only some 12 percent of firms using Web 2.0.

A total of 75 percent of firms using Web 2.0 applications mainly use them for knowledge management. However, Web 2.0 applications are frequently used for communicating with clients, external partners or suppliers. Within firms, Web 2.0 is also used for communicating internally and working on joint projects. Web 2.0 is less frequently used for working on projects with external partners (46 percent of Web 2.0 users).

According to the firms participating in the survey, the major barriers when using or further distributing Web 2.0 are the security risks and the great deal of efforts combined with follow-up costs difficult to calculate. These barriers are mentioned by 64 and 62 percent of firms, respectively. More than 50 percent of firms consider the control over the content insufficient, and 48 percent fear that employees are distracted from their actual tasks too much. Only one third of firms expects that their staff members are not willing to actively use Web 2.0 applications.

The survey results suggest that a significant part of firms in Germany is on their way to Enterprise 2.0. Future research has to analyse if wikis, blogs, etc. prove successful in the long run and contribute to higher productivity and better innovative ability.

For further information please contact

Dr. Irene Bertschek, Phone: +49 (0)621/1235-178, E-mail: bertschek@zew.de

Information on the ZEW ICT Survey

The ZEW ICT survey is a representative survey of firms on the distribution and use of information and communication technologies (ICT).

The telephone survey was conducted in cooperation with infas Institute for Applied Social Sciences, Bonn, between February and May 2010. A total of around 4,400 firms in Germany participated in the survey.

Sectors surveyed: The survey analysed the manufacturing industry and selected service sectors. The classification of economic sectors (Wirtschaftszweigsystematik WZ 2008) by the German Federal Statistical Office was used for the first time in the current survey.

Sectors in the manufacturing industry are:

consumer goods, chemical and pharmaceutical industry, primary products, metal industry, electrical industry, engineering, vehicle construction.

Selected service sectors include:

retailing industry, wholesale, transport services, media services, IT services and telecommunication services, financial services, real estate services, management consulting/advertising, technical services, corporate services.

Distribution and weighting:

The survey results are projected on the overall distribution of firms with at least five employees in Germany in the sectors surveyed. The stratification characteristics were the sectors and the size of firms (number of employees).

The distribution data are based on a special analysis of the business register by the German Federal Statistical Office, statistics on employment subject to social insurance contributions and ZEW estimations. Small and medium-sized firms make up the majority of the number of firms. Large firms on the other hand are dominant when it comes to the number of employees.