IDATE: DigiWorld Markets Post a Record-Breaking Decrease of 2% in 2009

The release of this 10th anniversary edition, will also be marked by the launch of a dedicated website for the DigiWorld Yearbook which will be available this year for the first time in eBook, iPhone and iPad-compatible versions

The economic downturn better than many other sectors

It is nevertheless worth pointing out that DigiWorld markets have weathered the economic downturn better than many other sectors: although these markets progressed at the same pace as the economy as a whole (global GDP also shrank by 1.6%), this actually marks an improvement from the several years when the markets had been performing worse than global GDP. Especially noteworthy is the fact the rise in connections and consumption has been ongoing, despite (and in some cases because of) the fact that both businesses and consumers have been tightening their belts. So 2009 was yet another spectacular year in terms of mobile subscriber growth, with 550 million new customers signing on, and even a record year for broadband, with a user base that grew by 66 million subscribers worldwide.

Consumption has of course increased in kind, and in an especially spectacular way when it comes to the Net. VoIP, which was still fledgling at the start of the century, is almost a commonplace in many industrialised countries, and IPTV is rapidly gaining ground. As to the new market players, we have witnessed the meteoric rise of companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook. Google has quite simply become one of the most highly valued ICT companies while Facebook, which didn’t even exist 10 years ago, now boasts over 400 million users.

The Yearbook

In his introduction to the Yearbook, IDATE CEO, Yves Gassot, admits that 2009 does not appear to have been the stage for any stand-out events as the headlines were dominated by the markets’ vulnerability or, on the contrary, ability to weather the recession. The iPhone 3G and Android OS had been rolled out in 2008 and we had to wait until… 2010 in Europe to see a 3D film become a global smash, and for the launch of the iPad and the first Google phone.

1. the first congestion problems on mobile networks due to the growing use of smartphones, dongles and netbooks. At year-end, data accounted for the majority of traffic travelling over cellular networks. This marks the onset of a profound change in the economic equation for mobile operators, of their taking the measure of investments needed to deploy 4G-LTE, but also of a changing Internet of new applications and transformations in many markets (print media, publishing, healthcare, etc.);

2. the growing use of video is one of the main elements driving the rise in online traffic (accounting for 40% to 60%, depending on the estimates), which has at least three consequences. It makes questions over connected televisions all the more pressing, and adds another dimension to Net neutrality debates. Contrary to the commonly held belief, traffic differentiation is already a widespread practice among CDN market players and on the infrastructure deployed by the leading content aggregators. Lastly is the observation, especially in Europe, of the difficulties being had in implementing cohesive, large-scale superfast broadband rollout plans that meet the imperatives of fair competition while also encouraging operators to invest and take initiative. The end result is that the European model for organising the telecom sector is coming into question.

3. The third trend is the growing weight of social networking sites in the time that users spend online, in their changing communication habits and in the sites’ prescriptive powers with a business model that is increasingly dominated by platform strategies (e.g. hosting video games and other applications from outside providers). One of the main issues is determining the extent to which Facebook, which in 2009 alone went from 130 to 350 million registered users, will take on the status of the Web’s main marketplace and of Google and Apple’s main rival.

The Yearbook

In his foreword to the Yearbook, IDATE President, Francis Lorentz, speaks of the options that public authorities will be facing as the economic situation improves, which will provide Europe with an opportunity to focus its attention on a collective approach to a few key matters. In particular, he suggests: 1) strengthening financial and regulatory schemes in support of seedlings which have the greatest chance of conquering new technological and economic frontiers, 2) stepping up changes in universities which must act as the hubs of technology clusters and innovation policies, 3) being actively involved in deploying the Internet of the future by supporting two or three priority projects that are in the public interest, in areas such as e-health and smart grids.