Opportunities and Challenges Brought by Digital Economy

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OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES BROUGHT BY DIGITAL ECONOMY The digital economy is the global network of economic and social activities that are enabled by platforms such as the Internet, mobile and sensor networks. The digital economy refers to the devices most of us use each day such as computers, phones and game consoles. It includes the online maps that we consult, the web searches that we do to find information and our electronic banking. Digital Economy refers to an economy that is based on digital technologies. The digital economy is also sometimes called the Internet Economy, the New Economy, or Web Economy. It is widely accepted that the growth of the digital economy has widespread impact on the whole economy. The last decade has seen the advent and growth of two strongly linked phenomena which have led to important changes in the worldwide economy. The first is the development of the digital economy, based on the digitalization of previously existing goods and on the development of new purely digital goods. This technology has not only permitted the creation of many new goods or services, but has also dramatically changed the way an entire category of goods in the economy are created, produced, distributed, exchanged and consumed. Digital technology has caused a drastic decrease in reproduction costs and distribution costs (and even, sometimes, in initial production costs), thereby leading to important structural changes in the economy and potentially a global rise of social welfare, due to the increase in quantity, quality and variety of goods and services available in the economy. While originally restricted to a few types of good (software, mostly), the scope of use of digital technology has progressively increased to encompass many kinds of goods: music, films, photos, books, etc. The second phenomenon, which has followed the same increasing trend as
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