Businesses using high speed internet double in 2018

In 2018, Cyprus’ enterprises with internet connection speeds over 100Mbit/s have nearly doubled reaching 10.2% of all enterprises, compared to 5.3% in the previous year, according to a survey on information and communication technologies (ICT) usage and e-commerce in enterprises issued by the Statistical Service of Cyprus.
 
According to the survey 35.4% of all enterprises have a download speed over 30Mbit/s compared to 24.2% in 2017. Internet speeds between 10Mbit/s and 30Mbit/s still remain the most popular among enterprises in Cyprus (38,1%).) 
 
Cloud Computing Services
 
In 2018, 26.6% of enterprises with at least 10 employees bought cloud computing services compared to 10.2% in 2014. Cloud computing is very popular in the Information and Communication Sector (NACE Rev.2) in which half of the enterprises (51.1%)  are using these services.
 
The most common cloud computing services purchased were e-mail (21.7%), storage of files (17.7%), office software (15.9%) and finance or accounting software applications (8.2%).
 
E-Commerce
 
In 2017, 33.5% of all enterprises placed orders and 14.2% received orders for goods and services via computer networks. Enterprises prefer to do their purchases and sales via websites or apps.
 
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Specialists
 
In 2018, 22.8% of enterprises (10+) employ ICT specialists. 88.4% of large enterprises employ ICT specialists compared to 48.0% and 17.5% for medium and small enterprises respectively. 8.8% of all enterprises recruited or tried to recruit ICT specialists during 2017 with almost half of them (4.3%) facing difficulties in filling those vacancies.
 
Website
 
Following the trend of the last 2 years, the percentage of enterprises having a website is decreasing, from 74.7% in 2016 to 70.9% in 2018. Among the facilities provided by the enterprises through their website, the most common is the description of goods and services and price lists which is provided by the 70.9% of all enterprises.  44.7% of all enterprises have links or references to the enterprise’s social media profiles (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, etc.) and 12.7%  offer personalised content for regular or returning visitors.
 
The survey took place during January-May, 2018 and covered 1,904 enterprises with 10 or more employees in various economic activities. The survey covers all the government controlled areas of the Republic of Cyprus.
 
The sampling method used was stratified random sampling. Two variables were used for the stratification, NACE group (16 NACE groups) and Size (3 Size groups: Small enterprises (10-49 employees), Medium enterprises (50-249 employees) and Large enterprises (250+ employees)).
 
The data collection was conducted with the use of a web based questionnaire and through personal interviews with the IT manager of the enterprise. 
 
The data refer to 2018 unless otherwise stated.