This information society is rapidly taking shape before our eyes. These changes are underpinned by technological progress and economic globalisation. The combination of global competition and digital technologies is having a sweeping effect on the economy. Digital technologies make it easy and increasingly cheaper to access information, store it and transmit it. Taking digital information, transforming it into economic and social value, offers huge opportunities for the development of new products and services.
Information is the key resource of the digital economy.
For instance, big mergers and acquisitions in the telecoms industry make the headlines every day. In parallel, small, innovative start-ups are mushrooming. They find new niche markets in Internet services, content and software. Some of them may be the giants of tomorrow. But the new paradigm concerns all business sectors.