in-cyprus 13 December 2019 -Edited by Annie Charalambous
Businesses in Cyprus are in the process of digitisation and in addition to basics – such as the use of computers – they are now also using social media.
A recent survey on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and e-commerce in businesses shows that 98% of Cypriot businesses with 10 or more employees used computers in 2019.
The percentage of small businesses (10–49 employees) using computers was 97.7% compared to 96.6% in 2018. Almost all businesses in Cyprus with 50 or more employees (medium to large enterprises) used computers this year.
As for e-commerce, 13.9% of businesses in 2018 were getting orders over computer networks (excluding typed e-mails) compared to 14.2% in 2017.
And 12.2% of businesses received products or services via websites or “apps” from customers residing in Cyprus, 8.3% from customers located in other EU countries and 6.7% from customers located all around the world.
The high cost of delivery or return of the products was the most common barrier preventing businesses from selling through websites or “apps” in other EU countries (only 12.8% were actually doing so).
In 2019, more than half of businesses (53.6%) with 10 or more employees used applications that allow audio-visual calls over the Internet (eg Skype / Skype for business, WhatsApp / WhatsApp Business, Facetime, Viber etc) for professional purposes.
In large enterprises, this figure reached 78.9%, in medium enterprises 64.8% and in small enterprises 51.4%. In 2019, the majority of businesses (33.9%) in Cyprus had a maximum offered data transfer rate of between 10 Mbit /s and 30 Mbit /s.
The percentage of businesses with a maximum data transfer rate of between 2 Mbit/s and 10 Mbit/s fell to 9.3% this year compared to 19.8% in 2018. Internet speeds above 30 Mbit/s increased from 35.4 % in 2018 to 49.3% in 2019.
“Maximum data transfer rate” means the data transfer rate based on the contract with one’s ISP.
