الرئيسية
ARAB NEWS
DAVOS: The Internet economy of the G20 is projected to reach $4.2
trillion in 2016 - nearly double the size it was in 2010 - providing
companies and countries with a vital source of growth as they battle to
thrive in an era of uncertainty, according to a report by The Boston
Consulting Group (BCG).
The biggest driver is the dramatic increase in the number of users
around the globe - from 1.9 billion users in 2010 to a projected 3
billion users in 2016, about 45 percent of the world's population. The
rise of the emerging markets, the popularity of mobile devices,
especially smart phones, and the growth of social media are also
compounding the economic impact of the Internet.
In "The Digital Manifesto: How Companies and Countries Can Win in the Digital Economy", BCG
makes the case that businesses will be fundamentally transformed over
the next five years. It also urges action by companies and countries,
recommending the creation of a "digital balance sheet" and offering an
agenda for chief executives and policymakers to build their digital
advantage. The Digital Manifesto, the latest in a series of BCG
reports on the rise of the Internet, was launched today during the
Annual Conference of the World Economic Forum at a discussion cohosted
by BCG and Google.
"No company or country can afford to ignore this development. Every
business needs to go digital," said David Dean, a coauthor of the report
and a senior partner at BCG. "The 'new' Internet is no longer largely Western, accessed from your PC. It is now global, ubiquitous, and participatory."
The rise of the new Internet
The BCG report
charts several major shifts that are not well understood by many
corporate executives and policymakers. These include the following
changes in the use and nature of the Internet:
- From a Luxury to an Ordinary Good. Twenty years ago, at the
Internet's commercial birth, its use was restricted to the relatively
wealthy. Today it is almost everywhere, with half the G20's population
expected to use the Internet by 2016.