Australia’s digital economy is now worth $79 billion or 5.1 per cent of GDP, making it larger than traditional industry sectors such as agriculture, retail and transport, according to a new Deloitte report. In fact, it’s now 50 per cent larger in real terms than Deloitte estimated for its Connected Continent report in 2011. The latest Deloitte Economic Access report – prepared for Google Australia – also forecast that the digital economy will be worth $139 billion by 2020, delivering $75 billion in consumer benefits, and 450,000 ICT jobs (4 per cent of total employment.) Ric Simes, a Deloitte Access Economics partner and the report’s co-author, said in 2011 Deloitte estimated that the Internet contributed about $27 billion in the form of increased productivity in Australian in one year. “Using an updated model, we now estimated that the economy was about $45 billion bigger in 2013 than it otherwise would have been because of the productivity impacts of digital technologies.” The report also looked at how businesses are using digital and social media to connect with their customers and also drive internal transformational change with the next wave of related technologies such as the cloud, data analytics, and machine-to-machine technologies. “The digital economy is changing from being a standalone industry to being embedded in businesses across the country,” he said. “Higher productivity means Australia has greater output for its inputs to production via the likes of increased competition, reduced prices, greater business efficiencies, and innovation for better goods and services.” Google Australia’s MD, Maile Carnegie, said it’s getting harder to separate the digital economy from the rest of the economy. He said this is a positive because it means technology is being embraced everywhere from healthcare to education, and from agriculture to government service delivery. “The challenge now is to ensure that we don’t take our foot off the accelerator because the health of the digital economy will be critical to Australia’s future prosperity,” he said. Follow CIO Australia on Twitter and Like us on Facebook… Twitter: @CIO_Australia, Facebook: CIO Australia, or take part in the CIO conversation on LinkedIn: CIO Australia Follow Byron Connolly on Twitter:@ByronConnolly Related content News ServiceNow continues workflow platform expansion with Utah release The company also doubles down on its customer success automation efforts, but bucks the trend by omitting GPT. By Peter Sayer Mar 22, 2023 7 mins CIO Build Automation Enterprise Architecture BrandPost Don’t buy into the hype of network observability to realize digital transformation success Just collect the right data and follow it to where it leads you. By Jeremy Rossbach, Chief Technical Evangelist, Broadcom Mar 22, 2023 3 mins Networking Feature How culture and strategic partnerships help fuel transformation Marc Hale, CTO for AIA New Zealand, recently spoke with Cathy O’Sullivan, editor for CIO New Zealand, about navigating the complexities of digital transformation, and focusing on culture to enable healthier outcomes for customers. By CIO staff Mar 22, 2023 7 mins CTO Digital Transformation Change Management Feature 10 things CIOs wish they knew from the start Go slower. Network. Tell stories. Get training. Be kind. CIOs have plenty of advice they’d give to their younger selves if they could. By Martin Veitch Mar 22, 2023 7 mins CIO Careers IT Management Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe