The power and opportunities of the UK internet market

‘Think’ have a whole YouTube channel with plenty of interesting videos chaired by some knowledgeable experts which are well worth checking out.

We were particularly grabbed by the following video presented by Matt Brittin – the Managing Director of Google UK. In it, he talks about the ‘Connected Kingdom’ which includes summaries of findings from a report by Boston Consulting Group that Google commissioned. In the talk, Matt gives an overview of the UK digital industry and reinstates the importance of technology in the UK’s business environment.

If you can get past the first couple of minutes (and Matt’s rather cringe-worthy ‘woooing’) you get to some very interesting facts about the UK digital economy. These are well worth watching and should be noted by anybody who is sceptical about the impact internet marketing can have on business activities.

• The UK internet economy is worth £100bn – more than transport, utilities and construction. This equates to 7% of GDP and is growing fast, with a figure of 10-13% GDP predicted within 2-3 years.
• £50bn of that total is e-commerce, £10bn is IT equipment (the rest is government investment and infrastructure)
• The UK leads the way in online sales, with the average person in the UK spending more per person in online sales than in any other country.
• SME’s using the web a lot in their day to day business are growing on average four times* faster than businesses that are not (*based on findings from a large study group carried out by Boston Consulting). They are also exporting more.