In 2023, 67.3 % of enterprises have their own website

Results of the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) annual survey on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in enterprises show that in 2023 virtually all Latvian enterprises used internet¹ (100 %). For comparison, 10 years ago 94.2 % of enterprises used internet.

Fixed internet is used by 77.5 % of enterprises, of which – 99.5 % by large², 87.2 % by medium and 75.3 % by small enterprises.

For work internet is used by 61.1 % of all employees of enterprises, and that is 5.7 percentage points more than a year ago.

In turn, 67.3 % of enterprises have their own website, and during the period of 10 years this is an increase of 11.6 percentage points. In group of large enterprises this indicator comprises 98.1 %, of medium-sized enterprises – 86.0 %, but of small enterprises – 63.4 %.

Use of social media and advertisements on the internet

In 2023, 55.3 % of enterprises use social media. The most opportunities provided by social media are used by large enterprises – 94.2 %, in group of medium-sized enterprises it is used by 70.0 %, but in group of small enterprises by 51.8 %.

More than a half of all enterprises (54.1 %) have a profile on some of social networks (Facebook, Linkedln, etc.), but multimedia content sharing sites (Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, etc.) are used by 24.6 %. Blogs or microblogging sites (X, WordPress, etc.) are used by 13.8 % of enterprises.

28.8 % of enterprises are paying for advertisements on the internet. In large enterprises this indicator comprises 52.7 %, in medium-sized enterprises – 39.4 %, but in small enterprises – 26.4 %.

Part of enterprises that are paying for advertisements on the internet use targeted advertising methods; at least one of them is used by 21.8 % of enterprises.

E-commerce

One of indicators characterizing development of e-commerce³ is share of enterprises selling goods or services over the internet or in other computer networks. In 2022, compared to 2021, this indicator increased by 1.7 percentage points, reaching 19.7 %. The largest increase – of 4.3 percentage points – was in the group of medium-sized enterprises, where sales over the internet is used by 30.7 %. In the group of large enterprises changes were minimal – rise of 0.5 percentage points, reaching 42.0 %, but in the group of small enterprises selling goods or services over the internet increased by 1.5 percentage points, reaching 17.3 %.

Use of cloud computing services

In 2023, 44.6 % of enterprises are using cloud computing services, while paid cloud computing services – by 35.8 % of all enterprises, and that is 7.2 percentage points more than in 2021. In the group of large enterprises paid cloud services are used by 79.7% (growth of 11.4 percentage points), in the group of medium-sized enterprises by 51.7% (increase of 8.3 percentage points), but in the group of small enterprises by 32.0% (rise of 7.3 percentage points).

Artificial intelligence

In 2023, 4.5 % of enterprises use some kind of artificial intelligence technologies, which is 0.8 percentage points more than in 2021. Of them artificial intelligence technologies (e.g. those that analyse written language, convert spoken language into machine-readable format, generate written or spoken language, etc.) are used by 21.3 % of large enterprises, 8.3 % of medium-sized enterprises and 3.5 % of small enterprises.

Survey on the use of ICT in enterprises was carried out at the beginning of 2023 with co-financing of European Union to acquire qualitative and internationally comparable statistical information on the use of ICT and development of e-commerce in enterprises employing ten or more people.

Methodological explanations:

¹ The survey covered enterprises employing ten or more people in the following economic activities: manufacturing, electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities, construction, trade, hotels and restaurants, transportation and storage, information and communication, real estate activities, professional, scientific and technical activities, administrative and support service activities and repair of computers and communication equipment.

² Large enterprises – those employing 250 and more people, medium-sized – those employing 50– 249 people, and small – those employing 10 to 49 people.

³ E-commerce is sales of goods or services over the internet on the enterprise website, on e-commerce websites used by several enterprises, as well as sales using electronic data exchange (exchange of entrepreneurship documents in standard electronic form among business partners, which is suitable for automated order processing).

Media requests:
Communication Section
E-mail: media@csp.gov.lv
Phone: +371 67366621, +371 27880666

More information on the data:
Inga Pribitoka
Trade and Services Statistics Section
E-mail: Inga.Pribitoka@csp.gov.lv
Phone: +371 67366993