November 2014

Data-Driven Business Models and Europe’s Digital Future

The European Digital Forum convened the High-Level Roundtable on Europe’s Digital FutureNeelie Kroes, former vice-president of the European Commission and commissioner for the digital agenda (2009-2014), delivered a fascinating keynote and launched Digital Minds for a New Europe, an e-book featuring 44 essays by the world’s leading thinkers on the challenges ahead – and the solutions digital technology will provide. The roundtable also served as the launch for Data-Driven Business Models: Powering Startups in the Digital Age, a new policy brief written by Sergey Filippov, associate director of the Lisbon Council. The policy brief explores the growing role and prominence of data-driven businesses among European startups and presents a set of 10 “smart policy principles” for making Europe an environment where digital startups can thrive. Romain Niccoli, co-founder, deputy CEO and chief technology officer of Criteo, a French digital advertising startup that has grown to more than €1 billion annual turnover, delivered the keynote. Laurent Kinet, CEO and co-founder of Swan Insights; Márta Nagy-Rothengass, head of unit for data value chain at the European Commission’s directorate-general for communications networks, content and technology; Mark van Rijmenam, founder of BigData-Startups.com and author of Think Bigger: Developing a Successful Big Data Strategy for Your Business, and Estelle Werth, global privacy officer of Criteo, joined a high-level panel on how European startups are carving out unique niches in the field of data-analytics, drawing on their limited legacies and imaginative business thinking to re-define competitive advantage in the age of the Internet. The European Digital Forum is a think tank committed to empowering web entrepreneurs and growing Europe’s digital economy. It is co-managed by the Lisbon Council and Nesta, the United Kingdom’s innovation foundation.