Digital Economy News | November 2021

Artificial Intelligence Summit in Hamburg

The first week of December sees the start of the AI Summit in Hamburg. The event, which kicks off Blockchance Europe 2021, will have a more international flavour with guest speakers from IBM and Microsoft among others. The initiative promotes German-American AI exchange, with webinars, workshops and coaching sessions bringing together industry, research and policy stakeholders to examine current trends and use cases for transatlantic business model and partnership development. Hamburg has established itself as a major AI location, hosting a number of initiatives as well as the Artificial Intelligence Center Hamburg.

AI start-up launches digital search engine for company data

Aachen-based start-up ambeRoad has developed a digital search engine that allows company servers to be connected for quick retrieval of data. The self-learning search engine is able to search images, videos and even audio files in the form of explainer videos and video conferences. Customers already signed up to the AI solution include mining group RAG and Siemens Energy.

Deutsche Bank buys Berlin FinTech

Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest financial institution, has acquired Berlin-based FinTech Better Payment according to Finanz-Szene. Better Payment provides technical processing services for online payments by credit card, debit card, invoice and online via Paypal as well as retail payment terminals and a white-label solution that allows B2B client to become payment providers. The move will see Deutsche Bank expand its market share of the payment processing and acceptance market. Industry insiders believe that the deal is in the low double-digit million range.

GDPR proves lucrative market niche for start-ups

Munich-based consent management platform (CMP) provider Usercentrics joined forces with Danish company Cybot in September to become a global top three player in the growing CMP market. Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in force since May 2018, has proved to be a surprisingly lucrative market for start-ups providing data management services. Companies like Munich-based start-up Usercentrics have cornered a gap in the market for the collection, storage and management of data in a GDPR-compatible fashion.

Major quantum computing “made in Germany” initiative launched

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has been awarded EUR 740 million in government funding to promote quantum computing in Germany. The aim is to construct a number of prototype quantum computers in the country over the next four years as part of a consortium consisting of DLR, industry and research partners. "In DLR we have a strong partner who, together with industry, will drive quantum computing forward," said Peter Altmaier, German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, emphasizing the importance of quantum computing for Germany as a business location.

T-Systems and Google partner for German sovereign cloud project

Google is working with Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Systems to create a German sovereign cloud. As part of the project, the two companies will jointly innovate to develop a large spectrum of next-generation sovereign cloud solution and infrastructure. The partnership will allow clients to host sensitive workload data on a sovereign cloud while retaining the benefits of public cloud services. The cloud, which will be supervised by T-Systems, should be available by mid-2022. The announcement comes after Google recently announced plans to expand its Frankfurt cloud region with a new data center and launch a whole new German region in Berlin.

Hamburg crowned top smart city for third time in succession

Hamburg has been crowned Germany’s top smart city for the third consecutive year. The Hanseatic city topped biktom’s “Germany’s Smart City Index 2021” ahead of Cologne, Karlsruhe, and Munich. Hamburg achieved the best partial ranking in the mobility category as part of its digitalization strategy. Bitkom's researchers examined 81 German cities with at least 100,000 inhabitants. Some 133 parameters in five categories (administration, IT infrastructure, energy/environment, mobility, and society) were examined for the index.

Online retail big winner of Covid-19 crisis

Germany’s online retail sector has been a big winner of the ongoing global Covid-19 crisis according to bitkom. The switch from stationary retail activity to online purchasing helped the sector record turnover of almost EUR 73 billion according to the Federal Statistical Office. A recent study also concludes that the permanent establishment of home office working will sustain this development. The online boom has also provided a boost to the logistics sector, with around 3.6 billion parcel shipments sent through the country in 2020 – 17 percent higher than in the previous year.