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New OECD Report Shows Thriving Internet Economy, Especially in U.S.

OECD has released a new report: the OECD Internet Economy Outlook 2012.  According to the press release:

Internet firms continue to drive growth and job creation in the IT industry, with fast-rising demand for mobile services helping to boost revenue and investment in research and development, according to a new OECD report.

The OECD Internet Economy Outlook 2012 says that the top 250 ICT firms, ranked by revenue, boosted employment by 4% in 2010 and 6% in 2011. Hiring grew fastest among Internet firms who increased employment by 29% in 2011, largely driven by Amazon.com and Google adding 50% more employees between 2010 and 2011.

ICT sector employment is highest in the United States, accounting for more than 30% of the OECD total, followed by Japan (16%) and Germany (9%).

To start from the bottom of this excerpt, the last statistic is very encouraging for the future of the United States economy.  But on a broader level, this data reads like the textbook desired goals for disruptive competition.  Increase in revenue, job creation and expansion in hiring, investment in R&D — this is what comes out of innovation, and why DisCo highlights companies who make it happen, and draws attention to others attempting to squash it.

Competition

Some, if not all of society’s most useful innovations are the byproduct of competition. In fact, although it may sound counterintuitive, innovation often flourishes when an incumbent is threatened by a new entrant because the threat of losing users to the competition drives product improvement. The Internet and the products and companies it has enabled are no exception; companies need to constantly stay on their toes, as the next startup is ready to knock them down with a better product.

Innovation

New technologies are constantly emerging that promise to change our lives for the better. These disruptive technologies give us an increase in choice, make technologies more accessible, make things more affordable, and give consumers a voice. And the pace of innovation has only quickened in recent years, as the Internet has enabled a wave of new, inter-connected devices that have benefited consumers around the world, seemingly in all aspects of their lives. Preserving an innovation-friendly market is, therefore, tantamount not only to businesses but society at large.