We are Number 1!
According to a report by Boston Consulting Group, the UK has the largest online economy in the world, contributing 7.2% of all the money sloshing around the UK economy. What’s more, for every pound we import using online, we export £2.80, in sharp contrast to the comparative figure offline, where we export just 90p worth for every pound we import.
What’s even more impressive about these figures are that our broadband infrastructure is not the best by any means – only just over 50% of the country has the capability to connect to fibre optic cable, which enables far quicker and more reliable internet connectivity and without subsidy from the government, it just doesn’t add up for private companies to push that figure much beyond 60%. Digging up roads is an expensive business. Yet, these latest figures suggest there is a huge potential benefit to the economy if the infrastructure were improved so any sane government would make that investment, wouldn’t they?
Part of the problem, beyond the cuts announced last week, is that there are still some people who don’t get digital. At a big travel trade conference last week, the keynote speech ended in the blindingly obvious statement – “Make no mistake about it, the internet is here to stay”.
Even if this speech was made in 2000, those would have been the words of a dinosaur, but to say it in 2010…!!
So quite how we are number 1 is a bit of a mystery, and is testament to those people, who have fully embraced the potential of online. What it also tells us, is that the potential for further growth is massive. If I was the government, I would stop approving major road infrastructure projects and put all that money into digging up roads.