BUSINESS USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY


INTRODUCTION

Key IT use indicators for 2012-13 were released in Summary of IT Use and Innovation in Australian Business (cat. no. 8166.0) in June 2014. These indicators included internet access, web presence and placing and receiving orders via the internet. This release includes the relevant IT use indicators as well as more detailed information about the types of broadband connection and internet commerce. Where possible data are cross-classified by innovation status.

Business use of information technology, selected indicators(a), by innovation status(b), 2012-13
			Innovation-active businesses	Non innovation-active businesses	All businesses
Estimated number of businesses(c)		'000	325	446	770
Businesses with:
	internet access(d)	%	97.2	89.3	92.6
	web presence(d)	%	67.8	32.3	47.2
	social media presence(d)	%	41.0	15.3	26.1
Businesses with internet access and broadband as main type of connection		%	99.7	99.6	99.6
Businesses that:
	placed orders via the internet(e)	%	69.3	41.8	53.4
	received orders via the internet(e)	%	43.3	20.6	30.2
Internet income(f)		$b	199.1	^47.2	246.4
^ estimate has a relative standard error of 10% to less than 25% and should be used with caution
(a) Proportions are of all businesses in each output category.
(b) See Glossary for definition of innovation status.
(c) Business counts are provided for contextual information only.
(d) As at the end of the reference period 30 June 2013.
(e) During the end of the financial year ending 30 June 2013.
(f) Estimates related to internet income should be used with caution, refer to Explanatory Notes 17 and 18.

Innovation-active businesses were more likely to use IT for each of the IT indicators, compared to non innovation-active businesses. For example, innovation-active businesses were more likely to have internet access (97%) than non innovation-active businesses (89%). Innovation-active businesses were also more than twice as likely as non innovation-active businesses to have a web presence (68% and 32% respectively).

More than two thirds of innovation-active businesses placed orders via the internet compared with less than half of non innovation-active businesses. They were also twice as likely to receive orders via the internet (43% and 21% respectively).


MAIN TYPE OF BROADBAND CONNECTION

Results show the proportion of businesses with broadband as the main type of internet connection as at 30 June 2013.

Main type of broadband connection(a)(b), 2010-11 to 2012-13
		2010-11	2011-12	2012-13
		%	%	%
Businesses with:
	Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)	74.8	72.2	70.1
	Fibre To The Premises (FTTP)	1.5	1.7	2.0
	Cable	5.9	6.7	6.4
	Fixed Wireless	6.3	8.2	8.9
	Mobile Wireless	8.6	9.1	10.0
	Satellite	3.0	2.1	2.4
	Other(c)	-	0.1	0.1
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) Proportions are of all businesses that used broadband as the main type of internet connection in each output category.
(b) Businesses identified the main type of broadband connection as at the end of the reference period.
(c) Other broadband includes connection types such as ATM and Frame relay. See Glossary for further information.

For all businesses with a broadband connection as the main type of internet connection, Digital Subsriber Line (DSL) was the most common. Almost a quarter of businesses with 200 or more persons employed had fibre as the main type of broadband connection (23%), while mobile wireless was most likely to be used by businesses with 0-4 persons employed (12%).




WEB PRESENCE AND SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

Results are the proportion of businesses with web and social media presence as at 30 June 2013. This is the first time data are presented this way.

Web presence and social media presence, by employment size(a)(b), 2012-13
		0-4 persons	5-19 persons	20-199 persons	200 or more persons	Total
		%	%	%	%	%
Businesses with:
	Both web and social media presence	15.4	30.0	45.9	63.3	22.6
	Web presence but no social media presence	20.5	30.3	34.5	34.3	24.7
	No web presence but has social media presence	3.6	3.9	2.0	0.5	3.6
(a) Proportions are of all businesses in each output category
(b) As at the end of the reference period 30 June 2013

Overall, 26% of businesses had a social media presence and 47% had a web presence as at 30 June 2013, while almost one quarter of all businesses had both (22%). The propensity of businesses to have both web and social media presence increased with each successive employment size range, from 15% for businesses with 0-4 persons employed to 63% for businesses with 200 or more persons employed.



Innovation-active businesses were more than twice as likely as non innovation-active businesses to have a social media presence (41% and 15% respectively).

Further data relating to web presence and social media presence can be accessed via the Downloads tab.