Business

Leveling the playing field can encourage European SMEs

Online businesses are booming and shaking up industries and sectors across the world but European SMEs are yet to be at the forefront of this sector.

Published

8 years ago

June 17, 2018

Michael Jermaine Cards

Online tech startups like Spotify and Booking.com ensure that it is possible to have European SMEs success stories on the global market if there are less regulation and a level playing field.

The EPP Group’s Henna Virkkunen, a member of the Industry, Research and Energy Committee, says that platform economy means a lot more business opportunities, economic growth, and jobs. These opportunities can be used, she adds, for providing new services and business models.

The booming online businesses are shaking up sector and markets around the world and make up the platform economy. At a hearing in the European Parliament, business representatives, experts, and EU officials discussed the future of Europe’s Digital Single Market. Unfortunately, among world’s leading platforms, there is not a single European company in the top-20, points out Virkkunen. She urged that Europe needs to focus on how to create a business environment of the same kind.

European Commission Vice-President Jiri Katainen for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness says it is essential to encourage small and medium-size businesses to get involved on the platforms.

Michael Jermaine Cards

Michael Jermaine Cards is a business executive and a financial journalist, with a focus on IT, innovation and transportation, as well as crypto and AI. He writes about robotics, automation, deep learning, multimodal transit, among others. He updates his readers on the latest market developments, tech and CBD stocks, and even the commodities industry. He does management consulting parallel to his writing, and has been based in Singapore for the past 15 years.