Key digital figures in Reunion Island
The digital sector is one of the most dynamic sectors on the island. Priority and highly strategic for the entire territory, like tourism, it has enormous potential both on the local and international market. Below is a briefd0 summary of the key digital figures and their development in Reunion .
The economic, social and technological context
• In 2016,
there were 538 companies . Digital Réunion
(formerly Artic, the association headed by Philippe Arnaud and
affiliated to Syntec ) then had 90 member companies. This figure is growing
since in 2017, it had 118 . They achieved 1.3 billion euros in turnover in
2016, a figure reaching 1.4 billion in 2017 (also according to the
association).
• In 2015,
4,300 employees worked in the sector, including nearly 2,500 digital jobs.
There is a shortage of profiles on the market (70% are engineers / coders) and
great difficulty in recruiting and filling job vacancies , according to
Philippe Arnaud.
• Reunion
was one of the departments with the most fiber in France in 2017 ( Arcep ). The
4G (mobile broadband) was established on 1st December 2016 (ARCEP) and 5G
should not be long now (2020 by Orange)
• Only 16%
of Reunionese companies are equipped with a CRM ( Customer Relationship
Management in French)
• The
French Tech label , thematic e-health , was obtained in July 2016.
Equipment rates and user behavior
• According
to the latest ARCEP report of June 2017 , there are 273,000 households connected to high and very
high speed broadband and 875,000 active
telephone lines , 62% of which are 3G
and 4G, i.e. potentially 542,000 connected lines (the same person can hold
multiple lines).
• As a
reminder, the ARCEP report of November 2015 already had 867,000 active lines and a penetration rate
of 103%: 621,000 mobile phone lines in
subscription (GSM as they say in the 974 department) and 246,000 lines in
"prepaid" .
• In 2018,
86.8% of Reunion Islanders had already surfed the internet, regardless of
location and screen (According to the Observatory of Digital Uses Antilles /
Guyane and Réunion Panorama 2019, Médiamétrie) . In 2017, the internet usage
rate in Réunion was 85.6%. or 593,000 Internet users. The inhabitants of
Reunion are now almost as connected as in metropolitan France, which records a
score of 88% (Digital Barometer 2017). Note that in December 2015, Médiamétrie
counted 480,000 Internet users (70.1% user rate), already up sharply compared
to 2013 (413,400 Internet users, or 61%).
• 79.5% of
Reunion Islanders connect to the internet at least once a month (Observatory of
Digital Usages 2019, Médiamétrie).
• Smartphone
use increased significantly in 2018: 62.9% of Internet users connected to the
Internet daily via their smartphone during the last 30 days (compared to 59% in
2017).
• Reunion
Islanders are no longer afraid to buy online : 8 out of 10 Internet users have
already bought a product or service online (Médiamétrie, February 2018).
• The TOP 3
activities on the internet are: carry out research, use your mailbox and learn
about current events (Observatory of Digital Usages 2019, Médiamétrie)
Internet sites and e-commerce
• In 2010 ,
the e-commerce market locally weighed 280 million euros , for around 100,000
potential buyers (article by clicanoo.re published in the Journal de l'île on
August 9, 2013). In 2017 , the Médiamétrie study states that 80% of Reunion's
593,000 Internet users have already bought online, or nearly 480,000 buyers
nonetheless .
• The most
visited sites in Réunion are Google, Youtube and Facebook (source: Alexa,
January 2018).
• This is a
success for video-on-demand services in 2018 since one in two Internet users
has subscribed to at least one paid video service in Reunion (L'Observatoire
des Usages Digital Antilles / Guyane and Réunion Panorama 2019).
• Even if
we hear less about it: new Reunion Island e-commerce sites are created every
month. We have identified nearly 200 sites in this directory . As we mentioned,
e-commerce represents more opportunities than risks and remains a major lever for growth.
Social networks
• In 2017,
each Internet user aged 13 and over was registered on average for 2.6 community
platforms ( Médiamétrie, February 2018 ). This figure rose to 3 social networks
in 2018 (The Observatory of Digital Uses Antilles / Guyane and Réunion Panorama
2019).
• Facebook:
470,000 people on the island are present on the platform, or 59% of the
population (Facebook Ads 2018). We note that the social network is reaching
maturity : account creations between 2016 and 2017 increased by only 10,000
accounts. Nevertheless, this well-established social network remains essential
for a brand .
• Instagram
is the network that has recorded the most growth : an increase of 21% in the
number of accounts in Réunion between
2016 and 2017, from 140,000 to 170,000 .
• Linkedin,
which had 73,380 profiles in 2016, now has around 120,000 (people mentioning
the island as their place of work, including private and public sector
employees combined), i.e. a growth of 63% of users in 3 years.
• Twitter
is still not taking off and the numbers are not “public”. There are an
estimated 5,000 to 20,000 Twitter accounts in Reunion.