LONDON: The Internet is worth £100bn a year to the United Kingdom economy, a study has concluded.
The research, which was commissioned by Google, found that the Internet accounted for 7.2 per cent of the UK ‘s gross domestic product, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported on Thursday.
If the Internet was an economic sector it would be the UK ‘s fifth largest, said the report from the Boston Consulting Group.
This would make the sector larger than the construction, transport and utilities industries.
Some 60 per cent of the £100bn a year figure is made up from Internet consumption – the amount that users spend on online shopping and on the cost of their connections and devices to access the web.
The rest comes from investment in the UK ‘s internet infrastructure, government IT spending and net exports.
The report, “The Connected Kingdom: How the Internet is transforming the UK,” says that the internet‘s contribution to GDP is set to grow by about 10 per cent annually, reaching 10 per cent of GDP by 2015.
The UK , according to the report, is the world‘s leading nation for e-commerce. For every £1 spent online to import goods, £2.80 is exported.
“This is the opposite of the trend seen in the offline economy, which exports 90p for every £1 imported,” the report says.
According to the BCG report, the top 10 net nations are Denmark, Republic of Korea, Japan, Sweden , Netherlands, United Kingdom, Norway , Finland, Germany and Iceland.
Small businesses that actively use the internet report sales growth more than four times greater than that of less active companies.
The report also attempts to compare the UK to other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Under its scoring system, the UK ranks sixth, above Germany, the United States and France . The highest ranked country is Denmark.
“The internet is pervasive in the UK economy today, more so than in most advanced countries,” said Paul Zwillenberg, partner with BCG.
”Several industries - including media, travel, insurance and fashion - are being transformed by it.”
Matt Brittin, managing director of Google UK , said: ”The internet is a central pillar of the UK ‘s economy.
”The sector has come of age, and with great prospects for further growth the UK internet economy will be vital to the UK ‘s future prosperity,” he added.
Source:http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201010291253129
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