Press release 11/11/2020

INFORMATION SOCIETY SURVEY. COMPANIES. 2020

Companies with 10 or more employees in the three provincial capitals of the Basque Country set new highs in the availability of e-commerce in 2020

More than half of companies have a website in the Basque language

The percentage of companies with 10 or more employees that used e-commerce stood at 31.6% in Vitoria-Gasteiz, 34.7% in Bilbao, and 40.6% in Donostia-San Sebastián on 31 December 2019 according to EUSTAT data. It should be pointed out that for all three capitals the data for this year marked the high point of the available historical series. Compared to 2015 these percentages represented an increase of 1.6 percentage points in Bilbao, 6.1 points in Vitoria-Gasteiz, and up to 6.4 points in Donostia-San Sebastián.

Taking into account that 33.2% of companies with 10 or more employees in the Basque Country made sales or purchases via e-commerce, at regional level this percentage varied between 20.0% in Encartaciones, Bizkaia, and 53.7% in Montaña Alavesa, Álava. In relation to e-commerce, as well as Montaña Alavesa, in Álava, we can also highlight the regions of Donostialdea in Gipuzkoa and Gernika-Bermeo in Bizkaia, both with 39.7%. Like the provincial capital, all the other regions in Álava also registered the best results of the last ten years, as did four regions in Bizkaia: Arratia-Nervión, Gernika-Bermeo, Markina-Ondarroa, and also Gran Bilbao, which includes the provincial capital. In Gipuzkoa, however, this was only the case in Donostialdea, the region where the capital is located, but it should be borne in mind that Gipuzkoa's regions started from higher figures than those of the other two provinces.

Basque companies with 10 or more employees showed high levels of ICT (Information & Communication Technology) equipment. The same can be said for internet connection, with percentages close to 100% in the regions and in the three Basque capitals, giving an average for the Basque Country as a whole of 99.2% (1.4 points more than in 2015). Moreover, differences between regions were very small, as all of them were well over 98%.

Additionally, 92.6% have a website, an increase of three tenths of a point compared to the previous year, but with a considerable accumulated increase of 6.1 percentage points compared to 2015. At regional level, Valles Alaveses in Álava with 94.5%, Gran Bilbao in Bizkaia with 93.7% and Donostialdea in Gipuzkoa with 94.7% stood out. Among the capitals, Donostia-San Sebastián stood out with 96.3%.

Computer networks also have a strong presence in companies with 10 or more employees in the whole territory. On average, 92.5% have them, four tenths more than in 2019. In this case, the regions of Rioja Alavesa in Álava, 99.6%, and Gernika-Bermeo in Bizkaia, 98.9%, stood out. Computer networks are not as widely implemented in the regions of Gipuzkoa; with an average of 90.1% for the whole of the province, Donostialdea was the most prominent region with 92.8%.

51.0% of Basque companies with 10 or more employees use open-source software. Only two regions exceeded 60%, one in Gipuzkoa, Bajo Deba, with 66.2%, and the other in Bizkaia, Gernika-Bermeo, with 65.8% of companies. It should be noted that this indicator has fallen steadily since 2015, which marked the high point of the available series with 81.7% of companies, 30 percentage points more than this past year.

Finally, carrying out procedures with public administrations by electronic means was also an indicator that performed positively and saw extensive implementation in companies with 10 or more employees that have internet access. Thus, in 2020, 97.3% of this type of company have done so, a new high point of the series after that registered in 2019 (96.3%) and 4.2 points above the 2015 figure. This was found to a greater extent in the regions of Estribaciones del Gorbea in Álava, and Duranguesado and Markina-Ondarroa in Bizkaia, all three with 99.9%, and Bajo Bidasoa in Gipuzkoa with 98.1%.

Half of companies use the Basque language on their website

Half of company websites in the Basque Country are available in the Basque language (50.6%). Websites in Basque are more frequent among companies in Gipuzkoa (with an average of 58.9%), a province in which six of its seven regions surpass 50%, with regional percentages varying between 45.7% in Bajo Bidasoa and 70.7% in Alto Deba. These are followed by companies in Bizkaia (average of 46.8%), where five of its seven regions also clearly exceed 50% and the level of the Autonomous Community and are: Gernika-Bermeo, the Basque region with the highest number of websites in Basque (83.4%), Markina-Ondarroa (77.1%), Plentzia-Mungia (66.7%), Encartaciones (59.8%) and Arratia-Nervión (55.9%). In the case of Álava (average of 44.4%), Cantábrica and Montaña Alavesa and Cantábrica Alavesa stand out by exceeding 50%, with 60.8% and 56.2%, respectively.

In the Basque capitals, although ICT equipment reaches very similar percentages in companies with 10 or more employees, Bilbao stands out in carrying out procedures with the administration electronically, having computer networks and use of open-source programs; Donostia-San Sebastián, for its part, stands out in the indicators of Internet connection, having a website, websites in the Basque language and e-commerce.

For further information:

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