In 2013, almost three quarters of enterprises employing 10 persons or more in the EU28 had a website, an increase of six percentage points compared with 2010 (73% compared with 67%).

For more than a decade there has been a shift in the content of enterprise websites from static webpages towards web applications, which include functionalities such as online ordering and links to social media.

In particular, the use of social media enables enterprises to improve their image and internet presence. In the EU28, 30% of enterprises used at least one type of social media in 2013, although only 8% of enterprises had a formal policy for social media use.

Looking at specific types of social media, 28% of enterprises in the EU28 used social networks (e.g. Facebook) in 2013, 11% multi-media content sharing websites (e.g. YouTube), 10% blogs or micro blogs (e.g. Twitter) and 6% wiki-based knowledge-sharing tools.

These data come from a report published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, and form part of the results of a survey conducted at the beginning of 2013 on Information and Communication Technologies usage and e-commerce in enterprises in the EU28 States, and Iceland, Norway and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, with a special focus on social media use by enterprises.

The proportion of enterprises with a website differed among Member States, with the largest shares recorded in Finland (94% of enterprises with at least 10 persons employed), Denmark (92%), Sweden (89%), Austria (86%), Germany and the Netherlands (both 84%), and the smallest in Romania (42%), Bulgaria (47%), Latvia (56%), Portugal (59%), and Greece and Hungary (both 61%).

The difference between Member States is also large concerning the use of social media. The share of enterprises using at least one type of social media ranged from 15% in Latvia, 16% the Czech Republic and 19% in France, Poland and Romania to 55% in Malta, 50% in the Netherlands, 48% in Ireland, 45% in Sweden and 42% in the United Kingdom.

The highest proportions of enterprises having a formal policy for using social media for their business were observed in Ireland (20%), the Netherlands (18%), Cyprus (17%) and Denmark (16%). In 19 Member States, the share was below 10%.

Among the different types of social media, the highest shares of enterprises using social networks were registered in Malta (52% of enterprises with at least 10 persons employed), Ireland (46%), the Netherlands (45%), Sweden (42%) and the United Kingdom (40%), and the lowest in Latvia (13%), the Czech Republic (15%), Poland (16%), France and Romania (both 17%).

For multimedia content-sharing websites the largest proportions were observed in the Netherlands (23%), Malta (20%), Belgium, Greece, Lithuania and Sweden (all 16%). Seven Member States had shares of below 10%.

For the use of blogs or micro blogs, the Netherlands (27%) also came top, followed by the United Kingdom (23%) and Ireland (20%), while 19 Member States had shares below 10%.

For wiki-based knowledge-sharing tools, Lithuania (14%) had the highest proportion, followed by Croatia (13%), Germany and Malta (both 11%) and Austria (10%). The remaining 23 Member States had shares of below 10%.