13/03/2008

The digital profile of Greek businesses with more than 10 employees is near the European average according to 2007 annual results of the indicators for the eEurope and i2010 initiatives, which have been recently published by the Observatory for the Greek Information Society. Small businesses with 1-9 employees are still far away from converging with Europe. As regards the use of the internet by citizens, the messages emerging from the younger generations are positive, although the 35-54 age group continues to avoid adopting new technologies. Six detailed studies have been made, throughout Greece, concerning Households, Businesses, e-Government, e-Learning, e-Health and Cost of Interconnection.

The results of the study include:
- The digital profile for Greek businesses with 10+ employees is at European levels;
- Small businesses (1-9 employees) are still far away from converging with Europe;
- The progress of broadband has contributed significantly to the country's acceleration;
- Younger generation gives positive messages;
- The 35-54 age group continues to avoid technology.

More specifically:
- Concerning the use of the internet, approximately 3 in 10 households are already connected, which satisfies the relevant target of the Lisbon strategy. It is positive that the average annual increase of households with internet access has increased to 11.7% (the EU average rate is 6%). Moreover, 1 in 4 Greeks use the internet on a weekly basis. Looking at this annually, weekly usage has increased by 18.5% on average, a change which results from a fall in the difference between frequent and infrequent users.

Greek internet users continue to be, for the most part, young men with a high level of education who live in urban areas. A high rate of internet usage was also observed in the younger age groups of people with a lower level of education. This led to the conclusion that the level of familiarity with modern technology is higher in the younger generations, regardless of their level of education. In the last three years, no changes have been observed in the reasons for using the internet, mainly because the services offered to Greek users have not changed significantly. More specifically, the internet continues to be an essential means of searching for information about services and products, despite the fact that the number of users who buy products online only reaches 5%.

- Concerning internet use outside urban centres, significant increases have been observed in the Attica and Central Macedonia regions. The digital gap between urban and tourist areas and agricultural or semi-urban areas continues to be high, emphasising the need for measures to be taken to increase the use of the internet in more rural areas of Greece. The image presented by businesses which employ more than 10 workers is comparable to that of corresponding companies in the rest of Europe, at a basic level of use of information and communication technologies. In 2007 it was discovered that 94.2% of businesses have access to the internet, and 27.7% of employees use it daily. Of the businesses with access to the internet, 67.8% of these have a broadband connection. Although around 10% of businesses use the internet to buy and sell their products, electronic trade only contributes 0.8% of total turnover.

A large difference continues to be seen in smaller businesses (with 1-9 employees) concerning their adoption of modern technologies. Over the last three years however, the volume of computer use has risen (57% in 2007 compared to 51% in 2005), and there has been an increase in the number of computers. There has also been a significant rise in the trend for broadband connections (63% in 2007 compared to 12% in 2005).

The percentage of essential services available online for citizens and businesses is 47%, but only 11% of the population use the internet to do business with the state (up from 8% in the previous two-year period).

Source: Observatory for the Greek Information Society