UK internet economy 'worth billions'
- Published on Thursday, 28 October 2010 09:30
- Posted by Scott Buckler
The research, which was commissioned by Google, found that the internet accounts for 7.2% of the UK's gross domestic product (GDP).
If the internet was an economic sector it would be the UK's fifth largest, said the report from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
This would make the sector larger than the construction, transport and utilities industries.
Central pillar
Some 60% of the £100bn a year figure is made up from internet consumption - the amount that users spend on online shopping and on the cost of their connections and devices to access the web.
The rest comes from investment in the UK's internet infrastructure, government IT spending and net exports.
The report, The Connected Kingdom: How the internet is transforming the UK, says that the internet's contribution to GDP is set to grow by about 10% annually, reaching 10% of GDP by 2015.
The UK, according to the report, is the world's leading nation for e-commerce. For every £1 spent online to import goods, £2.80 is exported.
"This is the opposite of the trend seen in the offline economy, which exports 90p for every £1 imported," the report says.
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