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Report: Digital, social media platforms contribute $7.3 billion to Canadian economy

Online platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Netflix are quickly becoming a major economic industry, a report finds.
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Thumb's up for Netflix? The Canadian digital sector will continue to grow substantially until 2018

Digital business is no longer a virtual reality but a very valuable one, according to a new report by the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC).

The report – titled the "Canada's Digital Imperative: Measuring Digital Platform's Labour Market and Economic Impact" – says "digital platforms" like YouTube and Facebook, among many others, contribute $7.3 billion annually to the national economy and employ 79,000 people. Those figures are expected to rise to $14.8 billion and 101,000 people by 2018.

Twitter, Netflix, and WebEx were also listed as major "digital platforms" by the ICTC.

The report also says Canadians' consumer behaviour is rapidly changing along with its business sector. Three-quarters of Canadians now use digital platforms to communicate with staff, the report says, and half said digital platforms both improve customer service and cut costs.

However, half of the report's respondents also said they don't yet completely trust digital platforms, with the cost of hiring additional staff listed as a sour factor.

(source: The Star)