Value of intangible factors: the internet and its impact on the world’s economies

Abstract

Transformation of the economy, caused by the development of technologies, and changes in favorites in the stock market clearly demonstrate that accents in the main drivers of modern development are increasingly shifting towards nonmaterial factors such as platforms, community (subscribers), ecosystems, information, reputation. In the age of digitalization, all these factors enable to provide additional competitive advantages as for the individual and the companies as well by increasing the recognition and speed of building new connections and relationships.

Meanwhile, the emergence and development of information and communication technologies connected countries and continents, placing people living there in a common virtual space. In this article, we will try to assess the impact of the Internet on the economy at the macro level, namely, using the example of countries with developed and developing economies. As a result of the study, we came to the conclusion that the impact on the growth of financial and economic indicators at the macro level in emerging economies of information and communication technologies is more than twice as high as compared to the impact on developed economies. Based on the conclusions in this study, in the future we will be able to make an attempt to interpret the results obtained at the sectoral and micro levels.