A report released yesterday by the Central Statistic Office (CSO) has shown that 36% of Irish enterprises employing 10 or more persons purchased cloud computing services in 2016, compared to 35% in 2015.

Finland had the largest percentage of enterprises in the EU purchasing cloud computing services at 57%, while both Bulgaria and Romania had the lowest take up rate at 7%. The most popular cloud computing service purchased by Irish enterprises in 2016 was the storage of files at 27%, while 26% of Irish enterprises purchased e-mail services.

Furthermore, the report shows that Irish enterprises ranked 4th in the EU when paying for Internet advertising. Thirty four per cent of Irish enterprises reported to have paid to advertise on the internet in 2016, such as on search engines, social media and other websites. The EU-28 average was 25%.

The most popular advertising method was based on webpage content or keywords searched by users with 27% paying for this method. Fifteen per cent opted for advertising based on the geolocation of internet users with 13% based on tracking internet users’ past activities or profile. Sixteen per cent opted for other targeted advertising methods.

Not surprisingly, over half of large enterprises conduct their sales electronically. In 2016, 52% of large enterprises had e-Commerce sales which accounted for 46% of total sales of such enterprises.

Twenty six per cent of small enterprises had e-Commerce sales which accounted for 23% of all sales in this size class. Forty seven per cent of medium sized enterprises had e-Commerce sales which accounted for 22% of their total sales.

Article Source: Business World

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