Sales of German Internet Industry Exceed 75 Billion Euros and Continuous to Grow

In 2011, the German internet industry had a sales volume of slightly more than 75 billion euros. This figure includes all sales conducted via the Internet as well as sales generated by selling internet-based products: for example e-commerce, data services, applications, and IT services or online video games. Measured against the overall GDP, this constitutes a share of 2.9 per cent. The internet industry has grown constantly between 2009 and 2011. Especially smartphones and mobile services are the major driving force behind this development. B2B e-commerce also generated high transaction volumes, not least due to the growing integration and automation of sales processes. These are the results of a study jointly conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and TNS Infratest on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) in preparation for the seventh National IT Summit in Essen, Germany.

The considerable share the internet industry contributes to GDP as well as the dynamic growth of the sector in the previous years show that the Internet has become a significant factor for the business success of many companies. A representative survey conducted by ZEW among some 1,300 companies from the sectors of information and communication technologies (ICT), media, automotive industry, retail trade, and knowledge-intensive service providers also confirms these findings.

Business success of ICT service providers particularly relies on the Internet. For 74 per cent of the companies in this sub-sector of the ICT sector, the Internet is essential for success, for further 12 per cent it is still necessary. 60 per cent of the surveyed companies within the automotive industry and 39 per cent within the retail sector state that without the Internet, they would act less successfully on the market.

Among others, business success is strongly associated with the realisation of innovations. Media service providers are especially active when it comes to introducing new internet-based products and services as well as new business models and processes. Nearly 68 per cent of the companies within this sector state that they have implemented such innovations during the past three years. The two surveyed sectors from the manufacturing industry, however, are less innovative. Only some 30 per cent of ICT hardware producers and 28 per cent of the companies in the automotive industry implemented new internet-based products and services as well as business models and processes within the assessment period. This result of the ZEW study reflects the fact that service companies tend to have a higher IT intensity and are thus stronger orientated towards the Internet. Nevertheless, the majority of all sectors surveyed by ZEW expect a further increase of the Internet’s significance until the end of 2014.

The study by TNS Infratest and ZEW in German is available at www.tns-infratest.com/bmwi

For further information please contact

Prof. Dr. Irene Bertschek, Phone +49 621/1235-179, E-mail bertschek@zew.de

Dr. Jörg Ohnemus, Phone +49 621/1235-354, E-mail ohnemus@zew.de