Press release 30/11/2018

INFORMATION SOCIETY SURVEY. COMPANIES. 2018

The number of companies with 10 or more employees that carry out e-commerce has grown by almost 30% since 2010 in Donostia-San Sebastián and Bilbao

Over half of companies with a website have a Basque version

The number of companies with 10 or more employees that carry out e-commerce grew by almost 30% between 2010 and 2017 in Donostia-San Sebastián and Bilbao, according to data prepared by EUSTAT. In the case of Vitoria-Gasteiz, the increase stood at 11.7%. With this increase, the percentage of companies of this size that carry out e-commerce in the three capitals stood at 31.8%, 30.4% and 25.7%.

At a regional level, 29.0% of companies with 10 or more employees in the Basque Country carried out sales or purchases via e-commerce, varying between 41.3% in Estribaciones del Gorbea and 18.9% in Arratia-Nervión. In addition to Estribaciones del Gorbea in Álava, we can also single out the regions of Urola Costa in Gipuzkoa (33.9%) and Markina-Ondarroa in Bizkaia (31.8%).

Companies with 10 or more employees that have internet access, and which carry out procedures with public administrations in electronic form are the majority in all regions of the Basque country, with 96% of companies meeting these criteria in 2018, 1.2 points more than in 2017. These companies are predominantly found in the regions of Markina-Ondarroa in Bizkaia (99.8%), Goierri in Gipuzkoa (98.8%) and Montaña Alavesa in Álava (97.8%), although all regions exceeded 90% except for Llanada Alavesa (89.9%).

Basque companies with 10 or more employees showed high levels of ICT (Information & Communication Technology) equipment. Well over 90% of the companies in all regions had an Internet connection – the average for the regions as a whole being 99.3% (5 tenths higher than in 2017) – and 92.0% of companies had their own website (2.9 points more than in 2017). Standing out among these were Valles Alaveses in Álava (100%), Encartaciones in Bizkaia (96.8%) and Alto Deba in Gipuzkoa (93.3%).

The percentages of companies with more than 10 employees that have computer networks were also very high throughout the territory. On average, 92.4% of companies had them with the regions of Markina-Ondarroa in Bizkaia (98.0%), Llanada Alavesa in Álava (97.3%) and Alto Deba in Gipuzkoa (93.0%) all standing out.

54.2% of Basque companies with 10 or more employees used open-source software. The regions that stood out were Bajo Deba in Gipuzkoa (67.9%), Estribaciones del Gorbea in Álava (61,3%) and Encartaciones in Bizkaia (61.0%).

Availability of Basque on Basque company websites

Websites were mostly available in Basque in companies based in the regions of Gipuzkoa (64% on average), whilst for the Autonomous Region as a whole, this figure was 52.3%. Thus, in this province they exceeded 75% of those found in companies in Urola Costa and Alto Deba, being over 49% in the other regions of Gipuzkoa. Following these were those in Bizkaia (47.8% on average), where it was possible to access over 70% of the websites in Basque in the case of companies in Markina-Ondarroa, Gernika-Bermeo and Encartaciones. Lastly, in Álava (40.8% on average), Montaña Alavesa stood out, where over 50% of websites were available in this language, with the other regions not reaching this percentage.

Amongst the Basque capitals, although the percentages of ICT equipment were very similar in companies with 10 or more employees, particularly noteworthy in all categories observed was Donostia-San Sebastián, except in electronic procedures with the administration, for which Bilbao stood out. As an exception to these similar percentages in the Basque capitals are web pages available in Basque, for which special attention may be drawn to Donostia-San Sebastián (63.9%), followed by Bilbao (48.8%) and Vitoria-Gasteiz (40.9%).

Methodological Note: the Information Survey-ISS-Companies statistical operation 2018 has introduced a substantial methodological change for data relating to regions and capitals, recalculating the period since 2011.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tel: 945 01 75 62