Reporting on technology innovation in Central Europe
In recent years, more and more countries report passing the 100% mobile penetration barrier. Currently that is the case in most of the EU member states.
However, it is evident that this figure is not the same as 100% mobile ownership.
Continue reading ‘Counting mobile phones - beyond 100% penetration’
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), multinationals have been the key driver of Central European business innovation in recent years. While this innovation has brought benefits, it has not helped local companies, nor has it prepared the region for the challenges ahead.
In fact, a dependence on multinational innovation has left Central Europe’s economies vulnerable, according the EIU report entitled ‘A Time For New Ideas: Innovation in Central Europe‘, sponsored by Oracle Corporation. While a handful of local SMEs have managed to innovate, the region faces a shortage of talent and a lack of support for innovation among local governments.
Continue reading ‘EIU: Multinational innovation in CEE is not enough’
The European Comission published its Progress Report on the Single European Electronic Communications Market in 2007. It contains a comparison of fixed broadband penetration rates together with the speed of progress. Although in January 2008, Austria has a penetration rate near to the EU27 average of 20%, the country also showed the smallest increase in penetration rate over the previous year.
However, these figures may also be misleading due to the ongoing evolution in broadband technologies. Continue reading ‘Broadband penetration - Is Austria lagging behind?’
Gate2Start is a name of another Framework Programme project focused on the ICT sector and technology transfer. It is a part of the broader Europe Innova initiative addressing the exploitation of research-based innovation and bringing entrepreneurship and market expertise at the start of applied research.
Several coaching and networking events were run in several countries over last two years and there have been also developed some outputs the CITT and NowEurope community can benefit from.
Vienna’s position as CEE’s ICT capital has suffered quite a blow by IBM’s announcement to move its CEE headquarters to Prague. Beware: I love Prague, I live there, but the decision’s wording “to move growth market activities to growth markets” sounds rather shallow if applied to the Czech Republic. Sure the country has growth potentials that the EU15 have lost long ago, but then why not move IBM CEE to Ukraine or Russia right away?
I was in Prague earlier this month conducting a partner search for a social networking company. While I cannot comment on the specifics of that business, I can pass on a few observations about the Central European Internet market.
The online populations of Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia and Austria are relatively small. They are linguistically and culturally isolated. Even the Austrians, who share a common language with Germany and part of Switzerland, prefer to use Austrian websites. This limits the scale of any online business that addresses a single Central European market.
However, it would be a mistake to conclude that there aren’t any decent opportunities in these markets.
I am very glad to have the opportunity to be a nowEurope contributor. With my first article and warm welcome I would like to call your attention to global warming, in particular to the ICT aspects of the combat against climate change.
As part of its effort to combat climate change, the European Commission recently announced that it would promote the use of ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) to improve energy efficiency throughout the economy.
Continue reading ‘ICT to combat climate change’
As part of the NETIES project, we have conducted a survey of small and medium sized enterprises interested in participating in Sixth Framework funded projects. This survey was carried out in Hungary, in parallel with our colleagues in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
This research was conducted in two parts. The first survey, summarized here, collected information from companies and organizations interested in taking part in an FP6 funded project. The second survey researched those who had previously taken part in a project.
One insight of this survey is that two-thirds of respondents (64%) had little or no knowledge about the FP6 programme, while 56% were interested in receiving information online.
Continue reading ‘Survey One results: Companies interested in applying for FP6′
As part of the NETIES project, we have conducted a survey of small and medium sized enterprises interested in participating in Sixth Framework funded projects. This survey was carried out in Hungary, in parallel with our colleagues in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
This research was conducted in two parts. The first survey gathered information from companies and organizations interested in taking part in an FP6 funded project. The second survey, summarized here, researched those who had previously taken part in a project.
One insight of this survey is the high level of satisfaction among Hungarian companies taking part in FP6. Nearly one third of companies (29%) rated their FP6 participation a ‘four’ on an ascending value scale of one to four, while 48% gave it a ‘three’. A full 90% agreed they would do it all over again, if given the chance.
A total of 39 companies took part in this survey, which was carried out in partnership with the Hungarian Association of IT Companies (IVSZ).
Continue reading ‘Survey Two results: Companies which have successfully applied for FP6 support’
Around 1% of Polish Internet users have made a purchase online. Of those, 40% made their first purchase within the last six months. A third of Polish shoppers declared that they intend to increase their number of online purchases. These figures come from a 2005 survey of Polish eCommerce conducted by Polish web measurements company, Gemius, in association with Money.pl.
What struck me is that the most popular method of advertising among Polish emerchants is paid search. Here in Hungary, my impression is that local advertisers have been relatively slow to adopt search, however I haven’t seen any recent figures on the Hungarian market for paid search.
This weblog and the CITT project
are co-financed within the 7th Framework programme
of the European Commission
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