Only Singapore and South Korea have made their way into the top ten most prosperous countries on the planet in terms of the strength of their digital economy. A simple way of defining this concept is to consider it as the branch of the economy that is closely conditioned by the production and consumption of goods derived from Internet-related technologies. It is clear that the impact of the network of networks on the economy of industrialized countries is very profound.
What is not so obvious is the reason why countries with an a priori very solid economy such as Japan or China have not slipped into the top ten in the ranking of the largest digital economies prepared by the Portulans Institute, Washington, DC (USA), and in which the University of Oxford, in England, has also participated. To draw up this ranking, these two institutions have analyzed the economies of 134 countries that together account for 95% of the world’s gross domestic product.
The top 10 is headed by the USA, and in addition to Singapore and South Korea, which occupy the second and seventh positions respectively, it includes Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom. To find Spain, we have to go down to 26th position. It is interesting to note that seven of the ten most prosperous digital economies are European, and that, as I mentioned in the opening lines of this article, a rapidly developing continent such as Asia only contributes two countries to the top 10.
Asia’s problem is not its prowess in terms of technology.
Japan and China occupy the thirteenth and twentieth positions respectively in this index, which, in addition to leaving them outside the top ten, places them behind Canada and Israel, if we look at Japan, and below Australia, France, Norway or Austria if we look at China. This ranking is surprising if we bear in mind that the technological, scientific and industrial development of these two Asian countries is beyond doubt.
If we stick to the semiconductor industry, which we talk about very often in Xataka because of its undisputed importance, Japan has companies like Tokyo Electron, Nikon, Canon or Toshiba, among many others. And China has SMIC, Huawei, Hua Hong Semiconductor, Honghu Suzhou Semiconductor Technology, Naura Technology Group and Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment, among many others. And there is no doubt that Internet penetration in these countries is robust. So what is the problem?
According to Fortune, the technological excellence that is present in all the top ten countries, and also in China and Japan, is not enough. The other critical ingredient for a country to do well in this ranking is the penetration of internet technologies in society. Its social dimension. This is the challenge facing not only China or Japan, but also other Asian countries with remarkable technological development, such as Malaysia. In any case, these and other Asian nations are very strong and it is likely that they will soon displace some European countries from the top positions in this ranking.