Romanians spend less money on IT than all the other East Europeans. Moreover, the degree of PC, Internet, web addresses, hardline and mobile telephony usage is the lowest in Eastern Europe.
These are the conclusions of the “Opportunities and limitations of the Internet economy development in Romania” survey, drafted by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants for MILLENIUM image&communication group and presented during the INTERNETICS seminars.
IT expenses stood at 13 euros per capita in Romania last year, namely 0.72% of GDP, while this type of expenses stood at 185 euros per capita (3% of GDP) in the Czech Republic and 126 euros per capita (2.77% of GDP) in Hungary.
Russia and Romania have the lowest IT expenses per capita, but Romania registers the lowest PC density: 1/9 of the EU level, reads the survey.
“As a higher number of governmental projects financed by the World Bank, EBRD or Phare have been carried out this year, the expenses in IT rose significantly,” the survey points out. However, the IT expenses per capita will not exceed 15 euros this year.
The Romanian IT market is estimated to stand at 337 million euros in 2001, while the Internet market amounts to 27.2 million euros, set to reach 38 million euros at the end of 2002.
IT expenses in Central and Eastern Europe would reach 9,153 million euros in 2001, with the highest increase in services (18.5%).
By the end of the year, there will be 1.2 Internet addresses for every 1,000 inhabitants in Romania, while 33 Romanians in 1,000 will be using the Internet. Moreover, 39 Romanians in 1,000 will have a PC at home, 180 of them will be connected to hardline telephony and 162 of them will have a mobile phone.
Romania is estimated to have 1.03 million PCs and 830,000 Internet users in 2002. Although Romania has the highest growth rate in this field, similar to the Czech Republic (51%), the degree of Internet penetration is the lowest.
Romania at the end of this year will have more telephonic fixed lines than the Czech Republic, but the density will still be the lowest in the region. There will be 4,21 million hard lines at the end of the next year as compared to 4,05 million estimated for the end of this year.
“Although mobile telephony has developed spectacularly in Romania, the penetration rate is still low as compared to the neighbouring countries,” the Roland Berger survey estimates.
Analysts estimate that Romanians will have 3.65 million mobile phones at the end of this year and 4.38 million mobile phones in December 2002.
As for the Romanian e-commerce market, there are no official statistics regarding the volume of transactions performed on the Internet. Most B2C virtual stores do not use online payment devices, as the current payment system is based on e-ordering only.
According to analysts, the volume of B2C transactions will not exceed 2 million euros in Romania this year. The books, the music and electronic and IT products are the most demanded by online shoppers.