IP: WITSA report on world IT economy released

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Please note this is not an endorsement of the report or do I have any idea of what it costs. The facts presented here 
might be of use to IPers and they can make up their own mionds on the wisdom of ordering the report which I have not 
seen.   djf

Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1998 17:38:14 -0700
From: carolyn <carolyn () megahits com>
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.01 [en] (Win95; I)
To: farber () cis upenn edu
Subject: WITSA report on world IT economy released

Dave:
I thought your readers might be interested in the following report from
the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), entitled
"Digital Planet: The Global Information Economy".  The executive
summary, which is in itself fairly substantial, is downloadable in PDF
format from their home page http://www.witsa.org.

The following press release is from http://www.witsa.org/pr.htm...

New Report Documents World ICT Marketplace Approaching $2 Trillion

Information Technology Powers Global GDP; Internet to Experience User
Surge in Next Three Years

The first major study of global information technology spending and
economic impact documents an industry valued at almost $2 trillion and
growing at a rate substantially faster than worldwide gross domestic
product (GDP). In addition, the results suggest that national GDP grows
when Information and Communication Technology (ICT) spending increases
and that even in the face of worsening economic conditions, the effect
on ICT spending is muted. The World Information Technology and Services
Alliance (WITSA) released the dramatic findings today at the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) meeting in
Ottawa, Ontario.

Produced for WITSA by International Data Corporation (IDC), "Digital
Planet: The
Global Information Economy" provides the first systematic exploration of
the size and shape of the ICT marketplace around the globe. The study
presents its findings based on data gathered in the 50 largest country
markets (in GDP terms) as well as four rest of region components. In
aggregate, this group represents 98 percent of worldwide ICT
spending and 97 percent of global GDP. The Digital Planet study is
distinctive in several important respects, including its coverage of
internal IT spending. This includes company expenditures on IT staff,
capital depreciation and other non-vendor related costs-an important
marketplace component not previously examined in industry sizing
studies.

<snip>

The new study provides additional evidence of the mind-boggling growth of personal computers and their influence on 
education. At year end 1997, 118 million personal computers had been installed in homes and educational institutions 
worldwide-up from 35 million in 1992. Report author IDC forecasts World Wide Web utilization to hit 100 million people 
by the end of this year and 320 million by 2002. Every year, an additional 50 million people gain access to telephone 
lines in their homes.

<snip>

Country by country comparisons showed:

The U.S. spent $643 billion on ICT in 1997, twice as much as Japan at $317 billion. Together, the U.S. and Japan 
represent over 53 percent of the world marketplace. Other "top five spenders" are Germany, the United Kingdom and 
France. Countries spending least on information technology are Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia and Vietnam. 
Brazil is the leading IC spender in South America with $34 billion in 1997. In Europe, Germany spends marginally more 
than the United Kingdom and France ($119 billion versus $102 billion and $91 billion respectively), but twice as much 
as Italy ($50 billion) and five times as much as Spain ($23 billion). The top five IT spenders in Asia- Pacific are 
Japan, Australia, the People's Republic of China, Korea and Taiwan.

In the last five years, Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) has been the fastest growing ICT market, moving at a compound 
rate of over 14.5 percent. Despite the current uncertainty, ICT spending in most of the region is expected to rebound 
as the crisis abates. Latin America followed just behind at almost 13.6 percent. At under five percent, Western Europe 
was the slowest growing market at 3.5 percent as a result of the appreciation of the dollar and local currency 
fluctuations in addition to a period of sluggish economic growth in Western Europe. PC installations in the home and 
education markets grew almost 80 percent in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan)-over twice as fast as Latin America, the 
next closest region and three times as fast as North America.

Vietnam, PRC, Columbia, Brazil and Hong Kong were the five fastest growing IT markets in the world. Although Vietnam is 
ranked 47 on the list of 50 IT spending markets, the compound rate of spending on ICT jumped 44 percent between 1992 
and 1997. PRC, ranked in the top ten ICT markets, grew at a rate of 28.5 percent.

Over half the countries included in the survey have increased their representation on the World Wide Web by over 100 
percent per annum between 1992 and 1997. The U.S. pays the world's largest telephone bill. With outlays of $220 billion 
last year for telecommunications products and services, the U.S. outspent Japan-number two on the list-by $68 billion. 
The U.S. and Japan constitute almost half of global spending on telecommunications. Other big spenders are Germany at 
$47 billion, the United Kingdom at $36 billion and France at $31 billion. At 15.3 million, the U.S. has the largest 
number of Internet hosts, 15 times more than its closest rivals, Japan and Germany. Other countries in the top five for 
the number of Internet hosts are the United Kingdom and Canada. Least friendly Internet countries--Vietnam, Saudi 
Arabia, Egypt, Venezuela and Philippines--are the least well represented on the Internet in terms of the number of 
Internet hosts in the country.

Internal spending on IT also shows the U.S. ahead, although the amount of these outlays has dropped gradually over the 
years from $105 billion in 1992 to $99 billion last year. Other top spenders in this category in 1997 are Japan ($63 
billion), Germany ($26 billion), France ($24 billion) and the United Kingdom ($22 billion).

Also of interest in the new study:

Russia spends less on telecommunications ($3.2 billion) than far smaller countries like Portugal ($3.4 billion) and 
Greece ($3.7 billion). Russia spends less on information technology ($8.5 billion) than Taiwan ($12.1 billion) and Hong 
Kong ($12.0 billion).

While most countries experience incremental gains, telecom spending by the PRC has exploded over four-fold between 1992 
and 1997, from $4.3 billion to $18.8 billion. China spent almost six times as much on telecommunications in 1997 as 
Russia.

Singapore is the world leader in telephone lines per household. Singapore has 1.25 lines per household, followed by 
Taiwan with 1.2 lines, Korea (1.17 lines), Israel (1.15 lines) and Sweden (1.15 lines).

Published by WITSA, Digital Planet: The Global Information Economy is
available to the public for $500 and can be ordered from the WITSA
website at http://www.itaa.org/digitalplanet.htm. An executive summary
is available free on the web at http://www.witsa.org. Reporters seeking
a copy of the full report should email Bob Cohen at a copy of the full report should email Bob Cohen at bcohen () itaa 
org.