Our Shared Digital Future

The report outlines a strategic vision for a digital future based on inclusion, trust, and sustainability. It identifies six shared goals: ensuring universal internet access, empowering users with secure digital identities, evolving business models to be socially responsible, enhancing global cybersecurity, creating agile multistakeholder governance, and developing frameworks for secure data sharing. The document emphasizes that while digitalization offers immense opportunities for economic growth and achieving Sustainable Development Goals, it also introduces risks such as structural inequality, cyberthreats, and environmental degradation.

• Internet connectivity reached 50% of the global population in 2018, but the rate of growth has slowed significantly, dropping from 17% in 2007 to 5.5% in 2018.
• There is a severe lack of investment in digital inclusion; only 1% of multilateral development banks' investment commitments are directed toward the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.
• Approximately 1 billion people lack a formal identity, which prevents them from accessing basic services and participating in society. This gap is more pronounced for women in low-income countries, where 45% lack an identity compared to 30% of men.
• Digital transformation is creating a 'winner-take-all' dynamic due to network effects, where platforms gain value as more people use them, challenging traditional concepts of monopoly.
• Cyberattacks cause annual losses exceeding $400 billion to the global economy, with the average cost of a single data breach estimated at $3.62 million.
• Traditional governance and regulatory processes are too slow to keep pace with the exponential rate of technological change, necessitating a shift toward agile, outcome-based, and multistakeholder governance mechanisms.
• The implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe on May 25, 2018, has become a pivotal global model for data protection, emphasizing user consent and data portability.
• Digital technologies offer significant potential to combat climate change through improved carbon emissions monitoring, blockchain-enabled carbon micro-trading, and AI-powered disaster response.
• China has become the world's largest internet population with over 800 million users, significantly impacting e-commerce through platforms like Taobao and leading the rollout of 5G infrastructure.

APA

World Economic Forum (2018). Our Shared Digital Future. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Our_Shared_Digital_Future_Report_2018.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Our Shared Digital Future. 2018. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Our_Shared_Digital_Future_Report_2018.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Our Shared Digital Future |date=December 2018 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Our_Shared_Digital_Future_Report_2018.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2018our, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Our Shared Digital Future}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2018}, month = dec, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Our_Shared_Digital_Future_Report_2018.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }