The most wired city in the world? Stockholm of course!
A recent survey from Scarborough Research shows that Stockholm is now the most wired city in the world, ahead of both the US and the rest of Europe.
The survey found that Washington DC is the city in the United States where most people are connected to the internet, with 59.9 percent of its population online. This means that Stockholm is one of the most wired cities in the world, with 60.2 % of its one and a half million inhabitants going online every day.
A researcher from the Stockholm School of Economics, Per Hkansson, says that this means that Sweden has the potential of being a major test laboratory for international e-commerce enterprise. "Technologically, Stockholm meets all the requirements for a mature, sophisticated marketplace and there is little of the nationalistic consumer behaviour seen in most other markets", he commented.
One of StockholmÕs advantages when it comes to the mobile Internet market is that there is an extensive fibre network reaching every area of the city. You can go online almost anywhere, which makes the mobile office more easy to operate.
More advantages of marketing testing in Sweden include the fact that Sweden has a population highly skilled in English and familiar with Anglo-American culture, whose life-styles and attitudes it shares to a great extent. Both private consumers as well as the business community are internationalised and keen on novelties. Proving the point is the fact that online banking and online financial services in Sweden are among the most developed in the world, with more and more people getting used to do business over the net.
Anna Lagerkvist
