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The Digital Society in Spain 2022: key data

Given the situation we are experiencing around the world, digitization is presented as a key lever of economic growth and as a tool for recovery, with a special role for 5G. The deployment of this technology represents a unique opportunity to reactivate the Spanish economy with investments of more than 5,000 million euros and the creation of more than 300,000 jobsin addition to emerge as a tool to promote environmental sustainability by reducing the total annual emissions of the European Union by up to 20%.

These are data that are collected in The Digital Society in Spain 2022, the Fundación Telefónica report that includes the most relevant social indicators to measure progress towards digitization.

Digitization as a lever for economic growth

The degree of digitization of Spanish society has been one of the main reasons why organizations and people have been able to recover or maintain their activity after the coronavirus crisis. In addition, the pandemic has driven the country’s digital transition, positioning Spain in ninth place among the 27 member states of the European Union in the DESI 2021 report (Digital Economy and Society Index) of the European Commission, advancing two places compared to the previous year.

Spain stands out especially in connectivity and digital public serviceshowever, SMEs still have room to boost their competitiveness through aspects such as big data, artificial intelligence or sales through electronic commerce.

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Thus, our country is in the top-4 of the OECD countries with the highest proportion of fiber optic accesses, with respect to the total number of fixed broadband accesses. Limiting the analysis to the European sphere, Spain continues to be among the Member States with better connectivityand, in fact, in 2021 our country advanced three places, reaching third position, being surpassed only by Denmark and the Netherlands.

Of the traffic carried at the national level (99% of the total traffic), 78.7% corresponded to 4G networks. 5G networks began to carry traffic in 2020, although in an almost token way (1.8% of the national total).

The constant increase in high-speed broadband coverage It is the result of the investment effort of telecommunications operators. In 2020, despite the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, investment again exceeded 5 billion euros.

A legal framework for digital transformation

The European institutions have continued in 2021 their intense regulatory activity to adapt the current framework to the new digital trends, enabling a better use of the digital transformation in the Member States.

The two most important proposals of the European Commission, published at the end of 2020, to define the new rules of the game for digital services aimed at protecting the rights of users and preventing anti-competitive behavior by large digital platforms (Digital Services Act – DSA and Digital Markets Act – DMA) have followed their legislative procedure during 2021.

Leisure drives internet use

A good part of the commonly used digital services continue to be accessed through the Internet. computer, smartphone and tablet, however, other devices (smart speakers, smart TVs, fitness trackers, home IoT systems, smart appliances) are beginning to have a prominent presence. In 2021, for the first time, more than half of households (53.1%) had a smart TV connected to the internet, almost 11 points more than in 2020.

The computers have benefited from the consolidation of teleworking and online training. After years of market displacement by other devices such as tablets or smartphones, in 2021 the sales of computers grew strongly and almost all (97.2%) of those who have telecommuted used the computer for it, 20.9 points more than in 2020.

In relation to the smartphone, all uses have grown in 2021

52.2% of Internet users say they listen to music, radio programs or podcasts with their smartphone, 1.3 points more than in 2020. 38.9% watch multimedia content through their smartphone, 6.8 points more than in 2020. And 38.1% make purchases using this device, a percentage similar to that of 2020. The use that grows the most in 2021 is carrying out financial operations, which goes from 16.9% in 2020 to 34.4 % of Internet users in 2021.

Digital leisure continues to be one of the main reasons for using the Internet: almost two thirds (64.7%) of Spanish Internet users have seen multimedia content in 2021, making it one of the main uses of the Internet.
Life is digitized: shopping, electronic administration and health care…

The electronic commerce It is consolidated as an alternative to traditional commerce with 55.2% of people who have bought online in 2021, increasing 1.4 points compared to 2020.

The OECD places our country in seventh position in its digital government composite index, surpassing nations such as France, Italy, the Netherlands or Germany. On the other hand, in the field of health care, 51.3% of the Spanish population used digital tools to make medical appointments, eleven points more than in 2020.

Digital divides persist

Despite progress towards digitization, gaps remain. One of the most obvious is age-related, where 30% of those over 65 do not use the Internet. Another of the digital gaps is related to the level of training and qualification: in 2021, a fifth of Spanish families did not have a computer, a necessary device to carry out advanced uses of the internet, such as teleworking or online training.

This highlights the need for public policies that help reduce the digital skills gap without forgetting the gap resulting from the lack of availability of sufficient devices.

The Spanish company still has a significant margin to increase the benefits of digital technologies. Most companies only use their websites to offer corporate information, and very few make more advanced uses, such as the possibility of placing orders or reservations online.

Social media applied to business are only used on average by just over 65% of companies, a very low figure, taking into account the possibilities that blogs and social networks offer to connect with market niches and position the brand at a relatively low cost. Nor are the tools for sharing information within the company (ERP), those for managing customer relations (CRM), or the most advanced technologies, such as big data or artificial intelligence, which even in the group of larger companies, they are not used by more than a third of the companies.

On the other hand, practically a third of Spanish companies with more than 10 employees have acquired some cloud computing service, and 27.7% make use of the internet of things, a quarter of companies with more than 10 employees use online sales channels and, in the field of cybersecurity, more than half of the companies had defined a technology security policy in 2019, but only 25% had redefined or revised it in the last 12 months.

The promotion of digital talent

The educational system faces many challenges to advance its digital transformation and contribute to the training of digital talent. A study carried out by Telefónica shows that the entire educational community is in favor of the use of technology: 99% of the directors of centers interviewed consider that technology helps teaching, percentages that are 89% in the case of teachers, and 83% of families.

The lack of technology professionals is a problem throughout Europe that is aggravated in Spain. In 2021, Spain had 72,000 ICT specialists, which was equivalent to 3.8% of total national employment, compared to the 4.8% average for the European Union.

Only 17% of Spanish companies have specialists in digital technologies on staff, compared to 19% of Europeans. By size, in large companies the percentages are 67% in Spain and 76% in Europe, while among SMEs they drop to 16% and 18%, respectively.

In Spain, despite not being a country as advanced in artificial intelligence as England, Germany or France, it is showing a firm commitment to its deploymentas demonstrated by the launch at the end of 2020 of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, one of the axes of the Spain Digital Agenda 2025, and one of the components of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the Spanish economy.

The implementation of the blockchain is taking place at a slower pace than that of other technologies, due to the low understanding and lack of knowledge of its application in business, beyond cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. All in all, GlobalData calculates a significant growth in the global market for this technology, which would go from having a value of 3,600 million dollars in 2020 to 24,100 million in 2025, reaching 198,600 million in 2030.

The report highlights that our country has a “vibrant” blockchain ecosystem, with 150 companies dedicated to this field, an annual turnover of 103.5 million euros, an important network promoting this technology with more than 500 members and eight universities with degrees related to blockchains, which places us as European leaders in blockchain training.

The quantum computing is making the leap from the academic world to solutions to real problems in science and economics. The integration of classical computing with quantum and artificial intelligence will constitute the greatest computing revolution of the last sixty years and three key applications of this technology have been identified: optimization of algorithms, data science and mathematical models, and quantum chemistry and materials science.

Another of the great avant-garde technological trends is the metaverse, where technologies based on virtual reality and extended reality take on crucial importance.

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