DIGITAL EUROPE, BETWEEN WEAKNESSES AND PROMISES

Abstract

Despite its 512 million people, its status as the second richest geographical area, its R&D expenditure reaching 300 billion euros, or 2% of its GDP (Eurostat) and its rate of urbanization and connected citizens, the European Union (EU) is struggling to establish itself as a digital power. This study shows that this observation is proven across different dimensions of digital: sectors, platform activities, venture capital. It then identifies the obstacles in the financial and institutional environments of digital. The size of the EU, its level of technological development and its digital ambitions lead us to compare it to the United States (established pioneer) and China (new competitor). Economies are becoming digital and, for once, they are not all becoming digital at the same speed. While the United States has dominated, from the development of Arpanet in the 1960s to recent platform activities, European countries appear to be much more behind. China has been sandwiching itself between the two since the 2000s and reinforcing the EU’s position of withdrawal. Of course, the transition of economies to digital is not homogeneous within Europe: the Nordic countries are in the leading position, followed by the heart of industrial Europe. Beyond these singularities, the European Commission is trying to orchestrate the integration of the digital market, but its recent and ambitious efforts have not yet changed the European digital trajectory. As is known, the degree of digitization has a great impact on digital marketing, which facilitates and favors participatory marketing. In this review, we will first analyze the global situation of the digital revolution in Europe with its pros and cons, the competition with the USA and China and the strategy of digital marketing in small and medium-sized enterprises.