The digital economy is forecast to reach $4.8 trillion by 2025, climbing 29 percent from today’s value. The prediction, from technology research and advisory firm Ovum, reflects digitalization’s growing impact on industries and processes, and its effects on value chains, supply chains, consumption and monetization.
Ovum predicts companies who supply the technology and connectivity fueling this growth will benefit the most from this growth. It identifies specific opportunities for businesses enabling services, device and service management, applications, customer relationship, and the underlying technology platforms through which customers and third parties access and distribute applications and content.
“Driven by cost-effective connectivity, greater computing capacity and improvements in technology such as analytics and artificial intelligence, the second wave of the digital revolution is on its way and its impact will be felt across all industries,” says Steven Hartley, practice leader, service provider and markets at Ovum. “The first digital revolution–1995-2015–impacted key processes and consumer-facing sectors such as media and retail. However, the second will impact a far greater range of processes and industries across the enterprise space, thereby expanding the opportunity to support their transformation—albeit with less direct consumer impact than before. Those players providing technology, connectivity and services to the digital economy will have a huge opportunity to facilitate this transformation.”
Enterprise technology spending is expected to claim 32 percent of the total digital enablement market in 2025, almost doubling to more than $1.5 trillion by 2025. Consequently, competition in this space is set to intensify as internet platform providers, network enablers and others move in. Communications and broadband connectivity will account for a 28 percent share too, albeit with spending in the segment declining by eight percent overall by 2025. Digital advertising will grow fastest, growing from $166 billion in 2015 to $385 billion by 2025, but will account for just eight percent of total spending in 2025.
