The document summarizes a study measuring the size and importance of the internet economy in the Netherlands using big data. The study defines different categories of internet-related businesses and merges the data with official statistics. It finds that 975,000 Dutch businesses have a website, 438,000 are online stores, and 68,000 are online services or internet-related IT companies. The distribution of internet businesses and their contribution varies regionally. The study aims to improve the methods to better measure the growing internet economy over time.

2. Measuring the internet
economy with big data
Bastiaan Rooijakkers

3. •“What is the importance of the
internet economy to the Dutch
economy?”
•Four aims:
• Determine a pragmatic definition of “the internet economy”
• Show the importance and size of the internet economy in NL
• Show the possibilities of new measurement methods with big
data
• Explain differences from regular statistics/concepts
3

4. Dataprovider dataset: 2.5 million Dutch websites
4
•Country, address, company name, Chamber of
Commerce number, taks number, phone number, e-
mail, …..
Business
information
•eCommerce probability, shopping cart software,
delivery services, payment methods, products,
prices,…
eCommerce
• Title, description, keywords, category,
language, author….Content
• Marketing, social media, links,
technical and hosting information, …Other

5. Definition of the internet economy
5
Online stores according
to eCommerce
variables
Online services or
internet related ICT
according to keyword
analysis
Businesses with a
website that do not
belong to category C, D
or E
Businesses without a
website

6. Merging to the GBR
6

7. Merging to the GBR: results
7

8. Number of business by internet category, 2015
8
975,000
438,000
68,000
28,500
5,700
16,000

9. Heatmap businesses with website
9

10. Distribution of number of companies, jobs,
turnover and value added
10

11. The core of the internet economy compared to
other sectors
11

12. Regional distribution
•Certain regions are more prominent in the
internet economy than others.
12
Online stores Online services Internet related ICT

13. Relative age of businesses
13
30% 30%

14. Future plans
• Improve method by using machine learning/Artificial
Intelligence and additional data sources.
• Obtain time series for several years
• Repeat the study in other countries -> Germany & UK
• Turn into regular statistics?
•For more information:
•https://www.cbs.nl/-/media/_pdf/2016/40/measuring-the-internet-
economy.pdf?la=nl-nl
•b.rooijakkers@cbs.nl
14