The FICOD 2009 opening ceremony will feature the presence of companies, senior Administration officials and Latino associations in the US. The purpose of choosing this country is to promote relations in the digital content field between Spanish and American companies and Administrations. FICOD has been an international window on the Spanish digital content industry since 2007. Due to its magnitude and its impact in the media, it is the most important annual ICT and Internet sector event in Spain.

The new technologies, a driving force behind the Spanish economy

“The technology sector is the driving force behind economic growth and great help for getting out of the crisis we are experiencing,” confirmed the Secretary of State Francisco Ros. “It’s an overwhelming reality. There is no economic and social change without the new technologies. There is no communication between people, there’s no economic management that increases its competitiveness without the use of the new technologies. Spain has to gain strength in this sector, otherwise it will be a historic loss”..

The national digital content sector in Spain continued growing in 2008 attaining turnover of 4.982 million Euros, which is 15.8% more than in 2007. This means 82% growth for the 2003-2008 period. This growth is due in large part to the development of the mobile broadband, the implementation of DTT and the dizzying growth of advertising on the Net.

According to the Secretary of State, “Digital content is included in the Global Content Sector which invoiced a total of 15.858 million Euros in 2008, according to ONTSI data,", and, "its importance is reflected in the percentage that this sector occupies within the content sector: in 2003, digital content turnover amounted to 20% of the total turnover of the content sector; and in 2008, this figure was already 31%”..

The Net speaks Spanish

Spanish is the second language as far as the volume of content on collaborative websites (wikis) and the third most important on the Internet in the number of users. Its growth between 2000 and 2008 was 571%, which is quite above the average world growth rate (336.1%). “The number of net users in our country continues to currently grow at a sustained rate of a half million every six months,", stated the Secretary of State. "In 2009, we reached 24.3 million net users". .

Francisco Ros highlighted the importance of the social networks in Spain, which is "the second country in the world that most uses this digital tool and the world leader in electronic signatures with between 14-15 million identifications”. On the other hand, national e-commerce continues growing, even though, as Ros indicated, "the fear of buying has been broken, but not of selling. Spanish companies have to get over their fear of selling online”. .

Moreover and thanks to the Internet in the Classroom program and the Agrega platform, Spain has become a world reference in the development of educational digital content platforms. The Agrega platform is a large virtual library of educational digital content where teachers, students and families can create, search, view and share educational materials.

There is also a strong videogame demand in Spain, which is the fourth largest market in Europe. Growth during the 2002-2008 period attained average values of above 10%, which is expected to increase to 13% for the 2006 to 2012 period. For all of these reasons, FICOD has become an important and key forum within the international digital content industry.