The Dutch Digital Economy: Death of Retail

Retail has always been a good indicator of the state of the economy and consumer confidence. The economic crisis following the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 saw a sharp decline in consumer household spending on consumer goods. Even in 2015 spending on consumer goods was still 4% under the all time high of € […] Read more »

The EU’s Digital Economy and Society Index: Reasons to be Cheerful?

February 2016 The European Commission released a press bulletin on the digital state of its European members. Apparently The Netherlands climbed two positions on the European digital ladder and now holds a second place after Denmark. Reasons to be cheerful? Figure 1: Pillars of DESI and IDI The index is based on 5 pillars: Connectivity, […] Read more »

Charting the Dutch Digital Economy Part VIII: C2C, The Elephant in the Room?

In our series on the Dutch Digital Economy we have so far analyzed the Dutch B2B and B2C e-commerce market. The total business conducted in the B2B and B2C commerce in 2014 equaled € 1015 billion of which 8,7% can be attributed to e-commerce. But when analyzing e-commerce there are a few other markets that […] Read more »

Charting the Dutch Digital Economy Part VII: Why B2B e-Commerce Is So Big

A few weeks ago The METISfiles reported on the relatively small size of Dutch B2C e-commerce. In this next digital economy series episode we will estimate the size of the B2B e-commerce sector. This is a much more complicated exercise than estimating B2C ecommerce size as there is no Dutch research available . Also, in […] Read more »

The GM & Lyft Alliance – If You Can’t Beat Them Join Them

Last week’s announcement of GM’s $500 million investment in Lyft may well be the turning point both the car and the software industry have been waiting for. Up to now innovation in the car industry has been driven by either carmakers or technology vendors, both working stand-alone on new initiatives. Innovation has been either focused […] Read more »

Charting the Dutch Digital Economy Part VI: Why E-Commerce Seems So Small

Businessmen, futurists, ICT evangelists, economists and even some politicians are wholeheartedly embracing digital transformation and the digital economy as the future for country, society and economy. And they agree that more should be done to facilitate that future. Unfortunately measuring the impact of digital transformation and sizing the digital economy proves to be tough as […] Read more »