Survey of Businesses on the

Data Economy

Executive Summary

A study prepared for the European Commission

DG Communications Networks, Content & Technology
by:

Digital
Single
Market
This study was carried out for the European Commission by

Ipsos Belgium
Public Affairs
Diestsevest 25, 5th floor
3000 Leuven,
Belgium
www.ipsos.com
Authors: Allison Dunne, Maria Fernanda Gómez

iCite
Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management
Université libre de Bruxelles
Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 42
1050 Brussels
Belgium
sbsem.ulb.be/research/research-centres/icite/about-icite
Authors: Julien Gossé, Charles Hoffreumon, Nicolas van Zeebroeck, Jacques Bughin

Internal identification

Project number: 2022.3356

DISCLAIMER

By the European Commission, Directorate-General of Communications Networks, Content & Technology.

The information and views set out in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the
official opinion of the Commission. The Commission does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this
study. Neither the Commission nor any person acting on the Commission’s behalf may be held responsible for
the use which may be made of the information contained therein.

ISBN 978-92-76-53667-3
doi:10.2759/1036

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2022

© European Union, 2022. All rights reserved. Certain parts are licensed under conditions to the EU.

Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. The reuse policy of European Commission
documents is regulated by Decision 2011/833/EU (OJ L 330, 14.12.2011, p. 39).

For any use or reproduction of photos or other material that is not under the EU copyright, permission must be
sought directly from the copyright holders.

2
 KK-09-22-290-EN-N
Abstract (in English)

0.1 Abstract

The Survey of Businesses on the Data Economy commissioned by DG CONNECT

looks at the state of the data economy among European Union enterprises by
mapping the uses and exchanges of data, the sources of data stored and
where, the frequency with which data is analysed and, how it contributes to
business value. The survey instrument was designed and fielded in the EU27,
Norway and Iceland using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing, reaching
a total of 10,006 surveyed enterprises between February and April 2022.

Regardless of enterprises´ characteristics, data is important to them. The vast

majority of enterprises store data from at least one source, with more than
nine out of ten EU enterprises storing data. Data analysis is also common
amongst EU enterprises, with 79% of enterprises storing data also analysing
it. However, the degree of importance of data to enterprises varies. Most
common is the use of data analytics without it being a core part of the business
(42%), while just under one quarter (24%) report their business being about
data analytics or their offerings heavily depending on it.

EU enterprises fall into one of four profiles of data users. A quarter of EU

enterprises are classified as ‘non-users’. Though the majority do store data
from at least one source, none of these enterprises analyse data. Passive users
both store data and analyse it, but on an infrequent basis (annually or
quarterly) and constitute approximately three in ten EU enterprises (29%).
‘Regular users and internal optimisers’ as well as ‘advanced users and data
monetisers’ both frequently analyse data (at least once a month). However,
they can be distinguished from each other by the fact that the latter report
selling data or data insights as a major motivation for storing data or their
business/offerings are about or depend heavily on data analytics. This is not
the case for ‘regular users and internal optimisers’. 28% of EU enterprises can
be described as regular users and internal optimisers with 18% falling into the
category of advanced users and data monetisers.

3
 Executive Summary (in English)

Executive Summary

This study reflects on the state of the data economy among European Union
enterprises by mapping the uses and exchanges of data, the sources of data
stored, and the infrastructure used to do so, the frequency with which data is
analysed and, how it contributes to business value.

The survey was grounded in a review of what was known on the topic together
with expert workshops to identify the key performance indicators. The final
questionnaire was a result of that development phase.

The conceptual framework emphasises the importance of technologies and

infrastructure as enablers of data use by businesses. The framework focuses
on three main steps of the data value chain, from the acquisition to the use of
data, passing by the analysis of these data. A specific list of indicators was
developed for each of these steps and constitutes the core of the survey. The
definition of ‘data’ for use in this survey was operationalised as ‘any
information, especially facts or numbers, collected to be used for business
operations or to help decision making. This includes simple spreadsheets in
excel’.

Figure 1.1: Conceptual Framework for the data economy analysis

The survey target population were enterprises operating in all EU27 Member
States, Norway and Iceland and based on two key sampling factors: enterprise
size (based on number of employees) and sector.

4
Data collection followed a Computers Assisted Telephone interviewing (CATI)
method, and the mainstage fieldwork was conducted between 14 th of February
2022 and 1st April 2022. In total 10 006 interviews were completed across
countries, with 9467 having been concluded in the EU27.

The results presented in this report refer only to EU27 data, excluding the
figures for Norway and Iceland.

Data acquisition and pre-processing

At a fundamental level, almost all enterprises are storing data from at least
one source; 95% of EU enterprises do so. Data stored by enterprises comes
mainly from internal sources, namely business processes (67%), their
customers (62%), and information systems (60%) as well as business data
(suppliers/business data, 66%). The storage of data from external sources is
less widespread, although at least three in ten enterprises store data from
publicly available sources whilst four in ten store data from digital platforms.
Sourcing data from data brokers is relatively uncommon given that 13% of
enterprises report doing so.

Both large and medium-size enterprises are typically more likely than micro
and small enterprises to respond positively when asked if they store data from
each source.

Turning to the use of data storage infrastructure, six in ten data storing
enterprises store at least a moderate amount of their data locally (i.e., on local
desktops/computers and servers). Although less commonplace, almost half
(49%) store at least a moderate amount of data in their own data centres.

The majority of data storing enterprises who utilise cloud processing or storage
utilise this infrastructure to store at least a moderate amount of their data
(60%). Zooming out to all data storing enterprises, this equates to almost 4 in
10 (37%) with a moderate amount or more data on the cloud.

Whilst both personal and non-personal data are stored on cloud infrastructure,
it is more common that a moderate amount (or more) of non-personal data is
stored there (51% of data storing enterprises who utilise cloud computing
doing so) in comparison to the proportion of (data storing/cloud computing
utilising) enterprises storing at least a moderate amount of personal data
(35%).

The novelty of edge infrastructure is evident from the survey with 36%
unfamiliar with the term and 53% not (yet) utilising it. The proportion of firms
using it remains marginal at 7%. Only 4% of data storing enterprises use edge
to store at least a moderate amount of their data.

The proportion of enterprises storing data in their own data centres, in cloud
infrastructure and in edge infrastructure go hand in hand with the size of the
enterprise. Besides having a higher proportion of enterprises storing data on
various infrastructures, large enterprises tend to store them on more advanced
infrastructures than micro, small or even medium enterprises do.

5
 Data analysis
Most enterprises that store data at the EU level also analyse it (79%) albeit to
different degrees of frequency. On the whole, the regularity with which
enterprises who store data analyse that data can be grouped into categories
where just under a fifth (18%) never analyse data, almost a third (30%)
analyse data on either a yearly/quarterly basis, approximately a quarter (23%)
do so on a monthly basis whilst just over a quarter (26%) do so on a weekly
or daily basis.

However, these results vary depending on the size of the enterprise, with a
quarter of micro enterprises reporting never analysing data (25% vs 18% EU
average). Moreover, medium (34%) and large enterprises (40%) who store
data tend to analyse data frequently (i.e. on either a daily or weekly basis).

The overwhelming majority of enterprises say analysis is mostly conducted by

their employees or consultants. Almost four out of five enterprises report data
analysis is done mostly internally (78% at the EU level), while less than 1 out
of 10 (7%) report that this is done more externally through third party
organisations outsourcing and 13% mention this is a shared responsibility.

Profiles of data users

The profile of data usage amongst enterprises categorises them into one of
these four groups: non-users, passive users, regular users and internal
optimisers, or advanced users and data monetisers. These categories were
built depending on the storage of data, the frequency at which enterprises
analyse the data they store, the motivations to store it, and the importance of
data to enterprises.

There are enterprise characteristics that are related to which category of data
user they fall into. There are some clear patterns when it comes to the size of
the enterprise. Both micro and small enterprises are more likely to be non-
users (33% and 24% respectively) or passive data users (30% and 31%
respectively), in comparison to medium and large enterprises. What is
interesting to observe is the relatively similar proportions of enterprises in the
medium and large size categories that are either regular or advanced users.
Looking at the operating revenues of these different profiles illustrates the
same pattern; these are lower amongst non-users and passive users whilst he
similarity in revenue between regular or advanced users is striking. This
suggests that the difference between enterprises that become regular users
versus those who become advanced users is not only related to size or revenue
and warrants further exploration.

Advanced users are characterised by not only the frequency of their data
analysis, but how central data is to their business or how reliant they are on
data. They are also more likely to store data from all the data sources
surveyed- both internal and crucially, external to the company. When it comes
to their use of technology these advanced users show higher rates of adoption
of data storage and processing technologies when comparing them to less
advanced data users.

6
On the other hand, reliance on (internal) company-specific data is observed as
one of the characteristics of regular users and internal optimisers. Whilst they
store data from internal sources to a similar degree as ‘advanced’ users, the
difference lies in the fact these regular users and internal optimisers are less
inclined towards storing external data. The technologies utilised by the
enterprises themselves also reflect this internal optimisation perspective of
regular users. Whilst adoption rates are lower compared to advanced users for
Cloud, Management Information Systems and Internet of Things technologies,
these proportions are closer to advanced users compared to the gap in uptake
of these technologies amongst non-users and passive users.

Non-users do not perform any data analysis. But this is not purely driven by a
lack of data. The analysis finds that, whilst the proportion of non-users storing
data from each source is far lower compared to other categories of users,
approximately half of non-users do store data from their regular business
processes and exchanges with commercial partners. This represents an
untapped opportunity to act on these data assets currently stored, but not
utilised by EU enterprises.

Data use and valuation

The profiles of enterprises sheds light on the degree to which enterprises act
upon the data that they store. It also highlights the untapped potential of non-
users who currently do not go beyond the storage of their data to analyse it.
Whilst EU enterprises are at various stages when it comes to the data economy,
the value of data is recognised by EU enterprises, regardless of their
characteristics. Only 14% of enterprises that are storing data say that they
don’t really need data to operate. Yet, the most common response is that firms
are using data analytics, but it is not a core part of their business (42% of data
storing enterprises).

The major motivations for storing data are related to improving the internal
operations of the enterprises (in terms of business efficiency or decisions-
making). This is more likely to be a driving factor for large and medium sized
enterprises compared to micro and small ones. When it comes to how
important data is to the enterprises the findings show that SMEs and large
enterprises are more likely to have a data-driven business than micro-
enterprises. More than one-quarter of these enterprises have a business that
is about data analytics or their offerings depend heavily on data compared to
a fifth of micro enterprises. Though when it comes to specifically selling data
or data insights being a major reason to store data, size differences are not
pronounced.

In general, providing non-personal data to third parties either for free, in

exchange or for payment is not a reportedly common practice amongst
enterprises. Where this does take place, it is most commonly shared with
public, or government institutions compared to other third parties. Almost a
third (31%) of data storing enterprises report doing so.

7
 Main reasons preventing firms from storing and analysing data
Not storing data from any source is rare, with only 5% of enterprises at the EU
level reporting not storing data. However, of those enterprises not storing data,
almost half report not doing so because the volume of their activity is too small
to justify it (49%), while more than a quarter reported lack of time or resources
to collect and maintain data (27%) and the industry still being very pen and
paper (26%).

Although, not analysing data by enterprises that store data is also relatively
uncommon, nearly a fifth (18%) report not analysing it. The reasons for not
doing so are divided in external and internal barriers.

At the EU level, the external barriers are more common, with 45% of
enterprises not analysing the data they store stating that they have no data
that is worth analysing and 31% reporting they don´t see any benefit from
analysing it.

When it comes to internal barriers preventing enterprises from analysing data,

the lack of human resources is the most frequent one (19%). The second
internal barrier is not having the right business skills (15%) followed by
enterprises reporting that they do not have the right IT/ coding skills to analyse
data (9%).