Spain: A European Digital Hub

The Spanish Association for the Digital Economy is an action-tank supported by business intelligence and unique digital technologies, with a wide representativeness (we are more than 525 members from different industries). We develop standards and compliance codes to build trust for the digital economy, as well as alliances for a more sustainable, humane and competitive economy. We are also the home of EsTech, the first scale-up organisation in Spain.

Spain, as one of the leading economies in the European Union and due to its role globally, is moving in the right direction to become a strategic European digital hub promoting information and communications technologies.

The Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union will be at the centre of decisions on key elements of the European Digital Decade. Spain can and should lead, in its own right, the political, social and economic debates related to digitization at the EU level.

Resources

Spain: A lab for innovative tech initiatives

• First cloud-based control center in Spain. With the implementation of this control center in the cloud, Holaluz increases the flexibility and agility in data management of its infrastructure, contributing to significantly increase the scalability of the company. This will make it possible to respond to the current growing demand for electricity. It will also promote a distributed generation model in Spain, thanks to the greater capacity offered by the control center to integrate new green energy producers close to the point of consumption.

• Launch of Miravia, a new e-commerce platform that provides Spanish consumers with a new shopping experience, connecting brands, consumers, and content creators under the same digital roof.
• Launch of the Spanish Pavilion on Alibaba.com in collaboration with ICEX to facilitate the entry of Spanish companies into our international B2B marketplace and thus make the Made in Spain visible throughout the world.

• Glovo Tech Hubs in Barcelona and Madrid: In Spain, Glovo develops the technology and all services from its tech hubs in Barcelona and Madrid, where more than 1,000 professionals work.
• Glovo Local: Glovo Local is a new program for small and medium-sized businesses in the retail and restaurant industries to enable them to digitise their products and services in order to boost their growth. Glovo Local is an all-in-one hub where local businesses can pick and choose solutions based on their needs and wants through a single site.

• Your 360 Digitalization: Telefónica Tech Cyber Security Camp & Cloud is committed to offering a virus-free internet, providing the cybersecurity solutions you need to protect you, your loved ones and all the devices you connect in your home and in your business. As well, Telefonica offers a comprehensive Cloud networking and SASE service. It brings together Telefonica’s MPLS, fibre, 5G networks of your headquarters and devices; with the cloud connectivity of your applications and with a uniform layer of orchestration, optimization, and security policies.
• The employment map is an interactive tool that, thanks to Big Data technology, analyses the job offers in Spain to show the occupations and skills that are most in-demand, as well as their evolution in time.
• Campus 42 is an innovative and disruptive concept, reaching Spain for the first time at the hands of Fundación Telefónica. 42 is a philosophy of life, a new way of relating to learning and the digital profiles of the future. It is a unique opportunity for comprehensive training in the digital skills and competences really demanded by the job market. A place where you learn through gamification, where each student is free to set out their learning pace and in which teamwork, effort, and consistency are rewarded.

• AWS Training and Certification programs are removing barriers to education and forging new paths for individuals to develop cloud expertise, obtain AWS Certifications, and enter the technology workforce. AWS works with AWS customer and partner organizations, K-12 schools, higher education institutions, workforce development organizations, nonprofits, and governments to empower individuals along different professional journeys to upskill, reskill, and prepare for high-quality jobs. In Spain AWS has already developed programs like AWS re/Start, AWS GetIT, AWS Academy and AWS Educate. Since 2017, AWS has helped train more than 100,000 people in Spain in skills related to cloud technology.
• The AWS Europe (Spain) Region supports digital transformation in the country. Located in Aragon, the AWS Spain Region enables customers to run workloads and store data securely in Spain, as well as satisfy end users with even lower latency. AWS estimates that the AWS Region supports more than 1,300 full-time jobs annually through a planned investment of more than €2.5 billion in Spain over 10 years.

• Supporting the Digitization of SMEs: The more than 15,000 Spanish SMEs that sell their products on Amazon have so far created around 35,000 jobs in Spain to manage their online businesses. In 2022, they exceeded 950 million euros in exports, 10% more than the previous year.
• Creating opportunities in rural Spain: 20% of the population in Spain lives in 90% of the territory. This is rural Spain, where it is estimated that by 2050, only one in ten people will live outside of cities. Amazon is contributing to the economic and social development of these areas by offering local business owners the opportunity to deliver Amazon orders to their neighbors.

• The IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center, located in San Sebastián, aims to advance quantum research in physics, information science, and materials science, using quantum computing (providing Qiskit Runtime services), build a quantum workforce, promote economic development, and provide the necessary quantum computing infrastructure (a 127-qubit on-site IBM Quantum System One managed by IBM) to achieve those goals. This new center represents a further step in promoting technology development in Spain and the EU to expand the horizons of computation, science, and technology.

• Bizum is a Spanish innovative payment system, being the only payment solution that relies on immediate SEPA transfers.
• Half of the Spanish population –24 million people– is already a Bizum user.
• 2,000 million operations have already been carried out, associated with 100,000 million euros.
• In 2023, an average of 2.35 million bizums per day (27 bizums per second) have been made.

• Red Points received the Future Unicorn Award 2023 at Masters of Digital, by Digital Europe.
• Red Points is a pioneering Digital Revenue Recovery platform. Over 1,000 companies rely on Red Points to fight fakes, piracy impersonations and credential reselling allowing them to maintain control, improve their brand value, and increase revenue.

• EcoSmart, which allows you to connect your EV charger to solar panels and charge the vehicle with cheap and green energy.
• Sirius, the software that manages the energy consumption of our headquarters in Barcelona (the energy sources it has are 23 EVs connected with a bidirectional charger, solar panels, a stationary storage battery and the electricity grid itself). Depending on the weather, the demand of the building and the price of energy at each moment, it is the software that decides which is the best source of energy.

• Google Safety Engineering Center in Malaga, for cybersecurity and hybrid threat analysis to better understand the evolution of cyberthreats and protect customers and citizens.
• Google for Startups Madrid Campus supports thriving, diverse, and inclusive startup communities, connecting startups with the right people, products, and best practices to help them grow.

• Cabify decarbonization project – Cabify has the commitment that 100% of the trips on its platform will be in zero emission vehicles in 2025 in Spain. It has a decarbonization project underway, valued at €82 million to decarbonise its own fleet in Spain and install the necessary charging infrastructure for its operation. The European Investment Bank (EIB) supported this project with a loan of €40 million.

• FILMIN is the largest Spanish online cinema platform. Pioneers in the video on demand market, they have celebrated their 15th anniversary by becoming a successful European model, with a presence in Spain and Portugal.
• Some of his latest milestones have been the start of his own production and the participation of two of his first original productions: AUTODEFENSA and SELF TAPE, in the most prestigious series festivals in Europe: SERIES MANÍA (AUTODEFENSA won the award for best short series) and SERIENCAMP.

• Travel Sustainable programme: Every day, travellers discover more properties that are displaying their sustainability practices on our platform; this helps guests understand what sustainability efforts a property has implemented and can inform their choice of where to stay. In Spain, over 36.000 accommodation partners display their sustainability practices and reach millions of potential guests – no matter their property type, size and location. More info here.
• Traveller Review Awards: La Rioja was awarded as the most welcoming region of the world in 2023. San Sebastián – Donosti was recognised as the third most welcoming city, making Spain the only country with two places in the top chart of the Traveller Review Awards. These recognitions were based on 240 million comments on the global traveller community of Booking.com. More info here.

• Netflix is one of the world’s leading entertainment services in the world. Since its first Netflix production in Spain in 2016 Netflix has created over 10,000 jobs with over 40 local production companies across the country. Netflix believes that great stories can come from anywhere, and works with creators from all over Europe to bring quality series, films, and games to life. Netflix’s production hub in Tres Cantos features ten stages and a state-of-the-art post-production facility,  giving creators from Spain and beyond the best tools to tell their stories.

• Charter of digital rights: A reference framework to guarantee citizens’ rights in the new digital age promoted by the Spanish Government in collaboration with civil society and business organizations.
• Startups Law: An advanced regulation which gathers key benefits in tax, social security and administrative requirements for startups, investors and workers.

• National Green Algorithms Program. The National Green Algorithms Program promotes the development of green algorithms to maximize energy efficiency and reduces the environmental impact of artificial intelligence models.

• Fond-ICO Next Tech, with the aim of promoting the development of innovative, high-impact digital projects and investment in growing companies (scale-ups).