Verenigd Koninkrijk: e-business
Uitgebreide informatie over e-business is beschikbaar gesteld door de Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Meer informatie leest u in onderstaande summary van EIU.
Brick-and-mortar companies most succesful online retailers
A business-to-consumer (B2C) shakeout during 2000 forced a number of “pure play” online retailers to go out of business or become acquisition targets. Many of the most successful online retailers today are established brick-and-mortar companies. Examples include Argos, a non-food retailer; John Lewis, a department-store chain; and Tesco, a supermarket group. Similarly, a number of mail-order companies have successfully added websites and online purchasing options to their existing printed-catalogue and telephone-ordering operations.
Continuining growth
The value of online retailing continues to grow, despite the difficult economic conditions in the UK; moreover, this growth outpaces that of high-street sales. According to Interactive Media in Retail Group, an industry body for electronic retailing, British online retail sales totalled £4.2bn in July 2009, up by 17% on a year earlier.
High internet penetration
Internet penetration is relatively high among British consumers. According to figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in August 2009, 70% of British households (more than 18m households) could access the Internet at home in the first quarter of the year. The ONS also found that 76% of adults (more than 37m people) in the UK had used the Internet at some time in the three months prior to being surveyed.
Internet service providers
The UK has hundreds of Internet service providers (ISPs), although a handful of large operators dominate the market. In terms of broadband customers, the UK’s biggest ISP is British Telecom (BT), with around 4.9m subscribers in August 2009, according to ISPreview, an online news forum based in the UK. Second is Virgin Media, a NASDAQ-listed cable company, with just under 4m subscribers; third is Carphone Warehouse, with 2.85m; fourth is British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), with 2.2m; and fifth is Tiscali, with 1.7m. Carphone Warehouse bought the UK assets of Tiscali (an Italian company) in July 2009. Once the two companies are integrated, they will be the second-largest ISP in the UK, after BT. Carphone Warehouse provides Internet services via the TalkTalk brand and also owns AOL UK.
Steady broadband internet penetration
Broadband Internet penetration has been increasing steadily, and broadband connections (high-speed, always-on connections, accessed via digital subscriber lines (DSL), leased lines, cable modem or wireless technology) accounted for 90% of all household Internet connection in the UK in the first quarter of 2009, according to the ONS. Competition in the broadband market has intensified in recent years with the entry of players such as Carphone Warehouse, which offers “free” broadband to customers who sign up to its landline-telephone service, and BSkyB, which offers broadband Internet alongside its pay-TV services. Most ISPs offer broadband subscription packages based on a fixed-rate monthly charge. DSL connections are now available to almost all British premises, and cable modem to around half of all homes.
Larger companies' use of internet
Larger companies use a variety of corporate data services, including leased lines, web hosting and private networks. Businesses have called for cheaper access to broadband services and the upgrading of telecoms infrastructure to cope with the fast data-transfer requirements of e-commerce. The opening of BT’s local-access lines to other operators should help to bring this about. After a slow start, the process of local-loop unbundling has accelerated over the past four years (see also below). In addition, both BT and Virgin Media announced plans in 2008 to roll out “super-fast” fibre-based broadband networks in the UK, covering around 10m and 12m households, respectively. As at September 2009, Virgin Media was further advanced than BT in making these plans a reality. A government white paper, Digital Britain, published in June 2009, proposed the creation of a fund, financed by a levy on copper telephone wires, to encourage the deployment of super-fast broadband to 90% of all households in the UK by 2017. The government has said that it wants to pass this so-called telephone tax before the next election, which must be held by June 2010.
High mobile-phone penetration
Mobile-phone penetration is high in the UK, with 126 active mobile connections per 100 persons in 2008, according to Ofcom, and most mobile-phone handsets now sold have some form of Internet capability. There is a growing market for data services over mobile phones (such as live-streaming television, sports news, games and music) fuelled by the roll-out of third-generation (3G) phones. There were around 18m 3G subscribers in the UK at the end of 2008, according to Ofcom, representing almost one-quarter of all UK mobile-phone subscriptions. Mobile phones and other wireless-communication devices are being seen as increasingly important media for advertisers.
Proliferating wi-fi hotspots
“Wi-fi hotspots”, which enable laptop, handheld-computer and mobile-phone users to access the Internet or their companies’ own computer networks while on the move, have proliferated in the UK. According to the ONS, almost 2.5m people accessed the Internet via wi-fi hotspots in the first three months of 2009, up from 700,000 a year earlier.
UK iDTV market most developed in Europe
Interactive digital television (iDTV) is another medium with retail e-commerce potential. The UK is the most developed market in Europe for digital TV, which has reached more than 80% of the country’s households.
