Large firms dominate EU e-business adoption, leaving small ones far behind

Large firms dominate EU e-business adoption, leaving small ones far behind
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Large companies in the EU were far more likely than small firms to use e-business software in 2025.

E-business applications are specialised tools used by companies for tasks such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and business intelligence (BI) — software that analyses data to support decision-making, Eurostat said in a release on Wednesday.

The share of companies using ERP systems ranged from 41% among small enterprises to 89% among large enterprises, a gap of 48 percentage points.

BI software use showed an even wider divide, rising from 11% of small firms to 69% of large ones — a 58 percentage point gap — while CRM use ranged from 25% to 65%.

A little more than half of all EU enterprises — 53% — used at least one of these types of e-business software in 2025.

Enterprises using e-business applications in the EU, 2025. Bar chart - Click below to see full dataset.

Wide differences between EU countries

Usage varied markedly across member states, with the highest shares recorded in Denmark and Finland (both 73%), Belgium and the Netherlands (both 70%) and Spain (66%), according to Eurostat.

The lowest shares were in Bulgaria (31%), Romania (32%) and Slovakia (34%).

Enterprises using e-business software, 2025. Bar chart - Click below to see full dataset.


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