Analysis of prospects for development of digital economies: Russian and global trends

Abstract

The article describes the digital economy as the most important trend in the world economic development in recent decades. Digital technologies have embraced the lives of individuals around the world, changed business processes and the activities of government bodies. There have been examined the main approaches to defining the essence of the digital economy, their transformation over the past 30 years and the formation of modern views, within which three main approaches to defining the digital economy have been identified: reproductive, cyber-system and institutional. The analysis of the development of the digital economy in the world was carried out using various indicators (business digitalization index, Information Communication Technologies development index, the level of digital competitiveness and others). As for the most digitally advanced countries, there can be mentioned the Scandinavian states, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Great Britain, and Switzerland. The largest digital economy in the world is in China. There are considered the main driving forces of the digital economy: a new data value chain and an increase in the number of digital platforms, accompanied by an increase in their quality. The main tendencies of digitalization processes in Russia are revealed: improvement of positions in world rankings, an increase in the proportion of economic entities actively using digital technologies. The development of the digital economy in Russia is constrained by a number of factors, which determines the need to use the successful experience of other countries in the following main areas: the development of digital platforms, the digital transformation of industry, and the improvement of the digital entrepreneurship ecosystem. The prospects for the development of the digital economy at the global and Russian levels are outlined: the growth in the rate of digitalization and its contribution to global economic growth and GDP, changes in the structure of employment, strengthening of the digital transformation of public administration.