Classroom Companion: Business

4.1 · Ecosystem Metaphor

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Definition 4.1
The digital economy ecosystem describes the relations and dependencies between 
digital services, ICT infrastructures, digital markets, and authorities in a socioeco-
nomic context.
4.2 
 Ecosystem Components
The only way to appreciate the complexity of the business ecosystem of digital 
services is to identify the basic technologies and building blocks it contains.
.
Figure 
4.2
illustrates the digital economy ecosystem and some basic tech-
nologies and stakeholders on which it depends. The global ICT infrastructure—
owned by the Internet service providers (ISPs) and the network providers (NP)—is 
the carrier of digital services, including applications and content. This ICT infra-
structure consists of interconnected networks of networks including the Internet, 
mobile networks, wireless networks, local area networks, fiber networks, and satel-
lite networks. It also includes storage of data and computing facilities. The ICT 
infrastructure is accessed by various types of user equipment—devices—including 
mobile phones, smartphones, PCs, laptops, and other terminals. Such user equip-
ment is manufactured and offered by device providers (DP). Application service 
providers (ASPs) offer applications to the consumers by trading them in the digi-
tal marketplace. Applications run on devices and may feature content offered by 
content providers (CP). An example of this is YouTube—an ASP—offering video 
content to users, in which the producers of content are CPs. Consumers and pro-
Providers
ICT infrastructure 
User equipment 
Applications and content 
Markets
Authorities
Consumers
ISP
NP
DP
CP
ASP
. Fig. 4.2 The digital economy ecosystem. (Authors’ own figure)