Mideast digital economy to hit $30b by 2018 

The Middle East business landscape is quickly adopting latest technologies to capture competitive advantages arising from leveraging the Internet of Things and leveraging mobile technology in their core businesses.

An SAP and Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report indicates that organisations are observing benefits to their business performance by increasing the accessibility of information, whether on prospective clients, existing customers, on internal processes or on internal data.

According to McKinsey & Company, businesses that embrace digital transformation could see revenue increase by 30 per cent.

“This will be not just another evolution in technology. It will be a revolution for how business are run and also how new business models are possible. As the Middle East continues to be an early adopter of latest innovations, local businesses will have to define their approach now to stay relevant in this new digital economy,” said Hannes Liebe, COO, SAP Mena.

“Those new technologies such as cloud, big data, predictive analytics and Internet of Things are already reshaping a new reality, and companies will have two choices: either invest or face the risk of becoming irrelevant,” added Liebe.

This new digital economy in the Middle East is set to exceed 30 billion by 2018, following almost 30 per cent growth this year, according to a recent report.

Another report indicates that the digital economy accounts for approximately 450 billion a year of the global GDP from traffic and trade flows.

Adding to the digital economy’s growth is the rise of the Internet of Things, which will see connected devices grow from nine billion now to at least 50 billion in 2020, and create 14.4 trillion in total value at stake, according to a recent report by SAP and Stephenson Strategies.