Monitoring the Information and
Communication Economy 2008

On 20 November 2008, the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and TNS Business Intelligence have published the 4^th ePerformance Report 2008 – Special Report for the Third German National IT-Summit. Every year, the German National IT Summit (Nationaler IT-Gipfel) of the German Federal Government brings together the key personalities and decision makers of the ICT industry to discuss the future of ICT-Germany.

The 4^th ePerformance Report focuses on the most important factors, influencing the ICT location Germany until 2013. It also describes the German ICT industry’s potential growth fields and how its international competitiveness until 2013 can be assessed. This report extends the in-depth data, information and interpretation of the Factual Report with the current and forecast status of the German ICT economy, presented in a compact format. For the period 2005 to 2007, shifts in the so-called “core indicators” are depicted and evaluated compared to the European ICT economy of 2006. Furthermore, the ePerformance Report provides comparisons between the positioning of the German ICT industry and the ICT industry in other countries. For the first time, the ePerformance Report also comes with forecasts until 2013.

The 11^th Factual Report on Monitoring the Information and Communication Economy 2008 provides an extensive package of indicators and timelines on the information economy, the infrastructural conditions as well as the current application areas of the modern information and communication technologies.

In addition, the results are aggregated in the so-called “ePerfromanceIndex”, which serves as an overall assessment of the German performance. This means that the development of the German information and communication industry for 2007 and 2008 can be measured compared to the European performance in single figures.

The reports were commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) and compiled by TNS Infratest Business Intelligence, the TNS Group’s desk research specialist. In this differentiated reporting on the state of the German ICT economy, systematic market structures, infrastructural preconditions and the usage data of the sub-segments amounting to the overall market are analysed with regards to their international benchmark. The mentioned sub-segments cover the areas information and communication technologies, telecommunication/ mobile communication and Internet/ E-Commerce