Greeks’ strange online habits
Small and medium-sized Greek enterprises are among the last to use modern technologies and citizens may still be wary of using the platforms of Gov.gr and internet banking, but when it comes to exchanging opinions on social media networking, mainly Facebook and X, Greeks look like internet gurus. This stems from a survey on the use of digital technologies by households and businesses conducted by Eurostat.
Therefore, 80.1% of Greeks participate in social media, which is the seventh highest percentage in the European Union, compared to a mean rate of 64.9% in the bloc. On the other hand, fewer than half (and in older age groups below 40%) of Greeks use the internet to obtain information about government services or even to carry out tasks now through the digital tools provided by the Greek public administration.
At the same time, despite the boost given by the special conditions that prevailed due to the pandemic, the digital divide between small and large enterprises remains significant. In Greece, only one in five businesses carry out online sales, with the percentage for small businesses being 19.8% and for large businesses 32.6%. In addition, only 23.6% of businesses in Greece use cloud services, compared to 45.2% in the EU, while artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are used by 4% compared to 8%, which is the corresponding percentage in the bloc.
Overall, the level of digital intensity in Greek businesses is low. According to Eurostat data, the level of digital intensity is considered very low for 56.2% of Greek businesses, with Greece only faring better than Bulgaria and Romania.
Although the percentage of Greek businesses conducting online sales remains low compared to other countries – despite the country’s rapid growth in e-commerce over the past four years – consumers in Greece widely use the internet to make purchases. In Greece, 79% of internet users aged 16-24 made at least one online purchase in the last three months, with the percentage in the 28-64 age group being 68.4%, and 35.3% in the 65-74 age group.
