Forgotten Market: Bridging the Grey Digital Divide in Europe

Forgotten Market: Bridging the Grey Digital Divide in Europe

This IDC Market Perspective explores the Future Consumer in Europe from a demographic perspective, with a focus on the widening digital divide between the young and working population and the elderly. Traditionally, most technological innovations in the consumer space are targeted at younger generations, since they are seen as the most lucrative market. However, an unintended consequence of this is that older generations get left behind, thus deepening the grey digital divide."Increased digitization of services acts in disservice to Europe's rapidly aging population, which has been left out of the digital society and may experience decreased quality of life due to difficulty in accessing amenities, such as online banking, ehealthcare, and entertainment. Active efforts by technology and services providers toward better inclusion of this group into the digital society will benefit all parties," said Gala Spasova, senior research manager, IDC's Europe Future Consumer.

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