New research
Digital Country Index 2017/2018
We are proud to launch the Digital Country Index 2017/2018. In comparison to last year’s Index, which was the first Digital Country Index ever published, this year’s edition allowed us not only to see the positions of each Country on a global and continental level, as well as for different Dimensions but also to analyse the changes in the positions of each Country.
Results of The Digital Country Index 2017/2018.
The UK has pushed the United States off its throne and came in first place in the global ranking of this year’s Digital Country Index. This country ranking, which presents the top countries globally in terms of digital searches, was launched by D2 – Analytics and its sister company Bloom Consulting at the City Nation Place Forum in London on November 10th. The Digital Country Index is a ranking that measures the digital appeal of every country. This means that it measures how attractive a nation is online according to the number of searches global citizens perform about a country in the five dimensions: Tourism., Investment, Exports, Talent and Prominence (general reputation).
The UK is on a winning streak.
The UK skyrocketed to the prime position of the Index by moving up seven places. Jose Filipe Torres, the Partner of D2 – Analytics and CEO of Bloom Consulting, said: “surprisingly, Brexit has raised the interest of global citizens and as a consequence created what we call positive searches’ that were beneficial for the Nation Brand and Digital Brand of the UK”. Hence, positive searches related to the countries’ decision to leave the EU were performed by people all over the world.
The USA has lost its "stamina".
Furthermore, the US elections have had a strong negative effect on the digital performance of the nation, called the “Trump Effect”. They moved down one position in the global ranking and performed worse than last year in all of the dimensions of the Index besides “Exports”. People in the USA conducted searches about living in the country and increasing inquiries about relocating to Canada.
Our research indicated that what happens in the real world is reflected in the digital world, which has been proven again in this year’s Index.
Canada is the grand example of successful Nation Branding.
Speaking of Canada, the United States’ “little sibling” has outperformed its neighbouring giant despite coming in fifth place in the ranking. Canada has managed to improve in all five dimensions of the Index. Jose Filipe Torres describes the Country as an example of successful Nation Branding and the secret winner of this year’s Digital Country Index. Not only have they benefitted from the USA being the “rebellious sibling” and them being the calm, “stay-at-home type,” as Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has described the two countries, but they also have become more appealing in the natural, as well as the digital world due to the popularity of Trudeau himself.
China, Australia, the Netherlands and Hong Kong – the surprising losers.
Besides the United States being the primary loser of this nation brand ranking, other countries have also slid down on this year’s global ranking. China moved from 6th place to 9th and lost its position as the most searched for exports. However, they improved their performance in most dimensions, e.g. by moving up to 20 positions in Prominence. This shows that China was not performing as well compared to its competitors on the digital country ranking.
This year’s winner of the digital country ranking Leadership Award and Green Award, the same happened for Australia. Their performance only slightly went down in some Dimensions and several vital areas there have been improvements. Nevertheless, Australia was not competitive enough to stay in the third global ranking position and moved down to 6th place.
Other countries moved down the Index because they performed worse than last year in every single dimension. Examples are the Netherlands, which drove down by seven positions to 33rd place of the global ranking and Hong Kong, which dropped to 11 positions to 26th place.
About The Digital Country Index.
The Digital Country Index compiles the measurement of the total amount of searches performed by all worldwide citizens toward any given country. We collect every search and categorise them into five dimensions: Tourism, Investment, Exports, Talent and Prominence (general reputation). We gather all the data using D2 – Digital Demand © software. This is the second consecutive year that D2 – Analytics, with Bloom Consulting, has released a Digital Country Index. The Index allows the company to measure the performance of each country on a global and continental level and for each of the five dimensions and analyse the changes in positions of each Country in comparison to the previous year.
The #DigitalCountry.
A digital country is a country that has triggered proactive interest from stakeholders in the digital world. Bloom Consulting presented this definition in 2015 after determining through its research and other sources, such as Google Intelligence, that when someone searches for information about a country, one of the primary systems used today is a “search engine”. “Searches” represent the actual level of interest in a Country or Place and therefore demonstrate a Country’s genuine appeal. “Searches” can also highlight the interests one may have about any specific Country, Region or City.
