The FT reports that the National Institute of Economic and Social Research conservatively estimates that there are 270,000 digital companies compared to less than half that estimated by the government.

The report, just out, supported by Google, is entitled Measuring the UK’s Digital Economy With Big Data.  As the title suggests, it makes a strong case for the use of extensive data analysis in determining that the digital economy  has spread into every sector of the economy.

Hal Varian, Chief Economist of Google, wrote the foreword which includes the only reference to ‘biotech’ specifically in the report: “The UK is one of the world’s strongest internet economies yet the myth persists that it consists largely of tiny dotcom or biotech startups in a few high technology clusters that quickly bubble up and often go bust.”