Europe in the Global Platform Economy

By the end of the twentieth century, the digital economy represented an irresistible, but also budding and localized phenomenon. Since then it has touched nearly every aspect of life and the digital revolution is a normality. Businesses are now in the midst of the most significant disruption in decades. Digital data have become the driving force of the fourth industrial revolution. State-of-the-art algorithms can readily analyze tremendous amounts of human- or machine-generated data with ever-increasing robustness and versatility, and at decreasing cost. Digitalization spans beyond sectorial limits, intensifying the competition between industries as data can feed various value chains. Partaking in the creation or the use of massive amounts of data has become an efficient means of creating value. Hence, the data economy has inherently a global scope, and Europe is now in competition with two economic regions that outperform the rest of the world.