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Online gaming and gambling were among the top digital services Irish people spent on in 2020, according to CSO figures.
Irish households spent €896m on digital services in 2020, nearly a quarter of which went to video streaming services.
The latest figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today (19 July) found that household expenditure on video streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime accounted for €211m (24pc) of total spending.
This was followed by €137m spent on online gaming (15pc) and €130m spent on online gambling (15pc). Irish households spent a total of €49m on social media and dating sites in 2020.
Patrick Quill, a senior statistician at CSO, said that the estimates are based on data from administrative sources as well as from publicly available information.
“The analysis includes estimates of spending by households on streaming, gaming, audiobooks, podcasts, social media, app stores, data storage services, education, wellbeing and other online services. The costs of access to broadband and television are not included,” he said.
Irish households spent €896 million on digital services in 2020https://t.co/FI7xlNufvC #CSOIreland #Ireland #Internet #InternetUsage #HouseholdFinance #HouseholdConsumption pic.twitter.com/8Z15ckFTkh
— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) July 19, 2022
Only €138m (15pc) of the spending on digital services went to Irish companies, while UK companies received more than twice that amount at €302m (34pc). The Netherlands came in third as a source of digital services for Irish people, accounting for €118m (13pc).
The CSO figures noted that online gambling was the largest service type imported from the UK.
Interestingly, Malta came in at fourth place among the European countries as a source for digital service consumption by Irish residents at €44m. This puts the country ahead of Germany (€28m), Luxembourg (€23m) and France (€8m).
Companies based in the US account for €56m (6.3pc) of total Irish household spending on digital services in 2020.
Other than video streaming, online gaming and social media, Irish households spent €25m on publishing, audiobooks and podcasts. They also spent €21m on online services for education, wellbeing and hobbies. Together, these account for up to 5pc of total spend on digital services.
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