(16 December 2013) – In 2013, almost three quarters of enterprises employing 10 persons or more in the EU28 had a website, an increase of 6 percentage points compared with 2010, according to Eurostat.
For more than a decade there has been a shift in the content of enterprise websites from static webpages towards web applications, which include functionalities such as online ordering and links to social media. In particular, the use of social media enables enterprises to improve their image and internet presence. In the EU28, 30% of enterprises used at least one type of social media in 2013.
Looking at specific types of social media, 28% of enterprises in the EU28 used social networks (e.g. Facebook) in 2013, 11% multi-media content sharing websites (e.g. YouTube), 10% blogs or micro blogs (e.g. Twitter) and 6% wiki-based knowledge-sharing tools.
The proportion of enterprises with a website differed among Member States, with the largest shares recorded in Finland (94% of enterprises with at least 10 persons employed), Denmark (92%), Sweden (89%), Austria (86%), Germany and the Netherlands (both 84%), and the smallest in Romania (42%), Bulgaria (47%), Latvia (56%), Portugal (59%), Greece and Hungary (both 61%).
The difference between Member States is also large concerning the use of social media. The share of enterprises using at least one type of social media ranged from 15% in Latvia, 16% the Czech Republic and 19% in France, Poland and Romania to 55% in Malta, 50% in the Netherlands, 48% in Ireland, 45% in Sweden and 42% in the United Kingdom.
It is interesting to note that for wiki-based knowledge-sharing tools, Lithuania (14%) had the highest proportion, followed by Croatia (13%), Germany and Malta (both 11%) and Austria (10%). The remaining twenty-three Member States had shares of below 10%.