EU – Baltic States, Innovations, Latvia, Markets and Companies, Technology

“Latvia is progressing in the integration of digital technologies (such as electronic information sharing, RFID, cloud services, and the use of social media) necessary to operate in the digital economy. However, the take-up of these practices is slow,” the report says.

Electronic information sharing at Latvian companies has increased from 9.6% in 2015 to 16% in 2016, cloud services were used by 5.9% compared to 4.1% a year ago, and use of social media increased from 8.8% to 10%. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) selling online on the domestic market increased from 6.9% in 2015 to 8.3% in 2016, but selling online cross-border shrank from 4.1% to 3.9%.

"Heads of companies often underestimate the ICT potential for boosting their business growth. Latvia has well-developed ICT infrastructure but lacks knowledge about how to use it in business,” said Signe Balina, President of the Latvian Association of Information and Communications Technologies (LIKTA). Therefore one of LIKTA's goals is to promote digital economy.

Nearly a half of Latvians shop online but only 8.3% of local companies sell their products and services online. Online sales are more widespread in the EU but the overall situation is roughly the same – on average 68% of population shop online but only 16% of companies sell their products online.

The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) is a composite index that summarizes relevant indicators on Europe’s digital performance and tracks the evolution of EU member states in digital competitiveness.