Press Release 05/07/2013
The proportion of Basque companies of 10 or more employees accessing the internet, using fixed or mobile broadband and with a website exceeds the EU-27 average
63.8% of companies with Internet access, 91.3% in those with 10 or more employees, used it to carry out procedures with the Public Administration
Basque companies continued to improve their ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) at the beginning of 2013, according to data provided by Eustat. At the same time, the percentage of employees using these technologies also keeps increasing year after year.
This continuing improvement of the main ICT equipment has meant that 82.1% of establishments now have a computer, having increased by 4.6 percentage points over the last year; 78.6% of all establishments have e-mail, an improvement of 5.4 points; and 78.8% have internet access, up by 5.0 points. The mobile phone, in turn, having risen 1.5 percentage points in the last year, continued to be the most common piece of CIT equipment in the Autonomous Region, being available in 83.6% of Basque establishments.
Moreover, 43.2% of companies had a website, following an increase of 3.0 points over the last year. This figure rises to 54.8% if we only take into account companies with an Internet connection.
By Province, although the differences are not very significant, the establishments in Álava had the greatest implementation of these technologies, followed by those in Gizpuzkoa. Bizkaia, for its part, obtained slightly lower figures.
Companies of 10 or more employees, except in the case of websites, practically maintained the same CIT equipment, having already nearly reached the availability threshold
These equipment percentages were higher in establishments of 10 or more employees. However, despite their extensive use - 98.6% with a computer, 97.6% with e-mail, 97.1% with internet access, 93.8% with a mobile phone and 83.6% with a website - their growth rate is much more limited than in small establishments.
Regarding the percentage of employees using these technologies, there has once again been a significant rise with regards to the previous year. Thus, 66.7% of personnel in work used a computer, 59.6% had e-mail and 58.8% had access to the Internet.
Unlike in equipment, it is important here to indicate how the percentages of employees using this technology are very similar, independently of the size of the establishment, due, amongst other reasons, to the greater progress in small establishments and to the fact that, in large ones, not all employees have access to this equipment. It is also apparent that the province where the greatest percentage of employees use these technologies is Bizkaia, followed by Álava, in PCs, and Gipuzkoa in e-mail and Internet.
On the other hand, 79.6% of companies, and almost all (98.6%) of those of 10 or more employees, use some form of computer security measure, above all antivirus software, firewalls, secure servers, or subscribe to security services.
Furthermore, 62.5% of Basque companies have free software, such as Internet browsers, office programs, free or open-source operating systems (Linux...), etc. This percentage goes up to 79.2% for companies with 10 or more employees.
Access to the Internet by Basque companies was predominantly via ADSL, although the highest growth was in mobile connections
Basque companies with Internet access currently represent 78.8% of the total, after those connected the previous year rose by 5.0 percentage points. The predominant method of access to the web continued to be via ADSL, with 84.6% of companies with access using this method. Following these were mobile connections with 63.3%, also obtaining the highest growth, and fibre optic cable connections, with 28.6%.
The remaining methods obtained utilisation percentages that were lower, as well as on the decrease: ISDN lines accounted for 6.5%, modem connections accounted for 2.0% and other fixed connections stood at 2.7%.
In companies of 10 or more employees, 97.1% had Internet access, with ADSL lines also being the predominant access method with usage of 86.9%. Next were mobile connections (76.2%), following a significant rise in the last year, cable (39.9%) and, further behind, ISDN lines (11.4%), the modem (1.5%) and other fixed connections (6.9%).
63.8% of companies connected to the Internet, and 91.3% of those of 10 or more employees, carry out procedures with public administrations online
It is noteworthy that 63.8% of companies with Internet access carry out procedures with public administrations via this method, and use the Internet to obtain information, to obtain and complete various printouts and forms, carry out administrative procedures, present proposals and bids, and declare Social Security contributions, Corporation tax and VAT, amongst other alternatives. In the case of companies of 10 or more employees, the percentage that interact with the Administration via the Internet is 91.3%.
43.2% of Basque companies, 83.6% in those with 10 or more employees, had an online presence via a website
Companies are increasingly conscious of the importance of maintaining a presence on the Internet via a website. Hence, in the last year, those that had a web presence accounted for 43.2% of the total, following an increase of 3 percentage points, whilst in companies of 10 or more employees this figure stood at 83.6%, after growing 2 points. If we take into account solely those companies that had an Internet connection, these percentages rise to 54.8% for the total and 86.1% in those with 10 or more employees.
These websites provide general information on the company, a list of products and services offered, a data privacy statement, job offers and after-sale services.
Regarding languages that they can be accessed in, Spanish particularly stands out, available in 98.8% of cases; Basque was in 36.5% of cases; English, 30.3% and other languages, 14.8%.
Internet access, broadband use and online presence in Basque companies of 10 or more employees exceeded the EU-27 average
At an international level, and for a perfect comparability with the EU-27, as well as employing the data of companies with 10 or more employees and the activities that they are grouped into (they do not take into account the financial sector, the public administration, etc..), information from 2012 must be used, where Basque companies obtained Internet access percentages (96.3%) higher than the European Union 27 average (95%), as well as having a greater percentage of fixed broadband use (94.9% to 90%) and mobile broadband use (68.3% to 49%). The Basque country also had a greater percentage of companies with a website, 81.4% in 2012 compared to the 71% EU-27 average.
19.7% of Basque companies, 27.7% in those with 10 or more employees, carried out e-commerce in 2012.
In 2012, 19.7% of Basque establishments realised e-commerce, following an increase of 2.4 points with regards to the previous year. This figure was arrived at mainly due to the 18.0% of those that carried out purchases via electronic means, with an increase of 1.9 percentage points and, to a lesser extent, by those that used this means to make sales, which scarcely represented 4.6%, 0.5 points more than in 2011.
These figures were higher in companies with 10 or more employees, where the proportion of those who made purchases or sales via the web or through other electronic systems (EDI, electronic data exchange), accounted for 27.7%, following a rise of 2.8 points. Also in this section the greatest part of this total originated from those that made electronic purchases, accounting for 23.6% and rising by 2.2 points with respect to the previous year and, to a lesser extent, by those who made sales via the same means, standing at 10.4%, 0.6 points up on 2011.
For further information:
Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tel: 945 01 75 62
More press releases on the ESI Survey on the Information Society for Companies in the Basque Country
Databank on the ESI Survey on the Information Society for Companies in the Basque Country