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As the COVID-19 Crisis Reveals, Europe Urgently Needs to Digitize Its Industry
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As the COVID-19 Crisis Reveals, Europe Urgently Needs to Digitize Its Industry

François Candelon, Hans-Paul Bürkner, Michael Grebe, Rodolphe Charme Di Carlo and Midas De Bondt
Boston Consulting Group, 2020
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The United States has Amazon, China has Alibaba, and Europe has…well, let’s try again. The United States has Google, China has Baidu, and Europe has…ok, never mind. The Netherlands had Skype, which Microsoft acquired, and the UK created DeepMind, an artificial intelligence company, which Google purchased, leaving Europe with…nothing. So what can the European Union do to facilitate the growth of its tech industry and the digitization of its other industries? Experts from the European offices of the Boston Consulting Group offer suggestions in this special report.

Summary

Europe’s tech industry trails far behind those of the United States and China.

European countries play a leading role in the automotive, luxury good and building supply industries, but they’ve fallen far behind when it comes to tech and digitization. This situation is dangerous; digitization is infiltrating every industry. The “digital economy” is now just “the economy.”

With the United States and China dominating the tech race, Europe looks eerily similar to 19th-century China. Responsible for a third of global GDP, 19th-century China’s place as the world’s biggest economy seemed unshakeable. Then, the second industrial revolution came along, and China was relegated to colonial status. Europe must take swift action, especially now that COVID-19 has accelerated the need for digitization.

Embracing digitization is the key to succeeding in a changing global economy.

COVID-19 has underscored how digitization makes companies more...

About the Authors

François Candelon, Hans-Paul Bürkner, Michael Grebe, Rodolphe Charme di Carlo and Midas De Bondt work in the European offices of the Boston Consulting Group.

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