One person I spoke here to estimated there are now 5,000 daily Swedish blogs, although it’s in online communities that Swedes have largely collected, somewhat reflecting the left-leaning community spirit of the culture which grew out of its 60s socialist roots.
Ericsson is gaining ground on Nokia amongst the Swedes, who often shunned the rather unsexy phones produced by their home-grown firm in favour of Finalnd’s finest. This is in no small part down to the successs of the Walkman phone, which Swedes now enjoy brandishing.
But in terms of so-called “Web 2.0” applications, Sweden has yet to produce, as Henrik calls it, the “”Swedish LastFM”. Ah well, at least there’s still time.
But the employment market for Swedish IT stafff appears to be once again on the rise. It looks like 2005 was a real tipping point in Swedish adoption of new technology.
One thing that is HUGE in Sweden and Scandinavia generally, is online gambling. Swedes cannot, put simply, get enough of it, and spend on average 5,000 Krona a year per person on chance gaming.
Of course, the “digital divide” between the IT haves and have-nots exists, as it does elsewhere. But a government scheme allowing a tax subsidy to buy a PC for those on benefits has served the have-nots pretty well.
Taxes and online banking are also now almost totally online, and pretty much all governmental services are going that way, including digital signatures for transactions.