- Survey by Gaia-X Federation Services: 46.4 percent recognise added value for their own company
- 5 percent trust in Gaia-X Compliance
- Cooperation benefits outweigh competition concerns
Gaia-X is widely accepted and positively perceived by companies. This is one result of the survey “Acceptance of Gaia-X” commissioned by eco – Association of the Internet Industry and Gaia-X Federation Services (GXFS). There is already a great understanding regarding the added values of Gaia-X and the associated opportunities to strengthen data sovereignty and reduce dependence on non-European providers. The study results are based on interviews with experts and an online survey of 184 people who have already had contact with Gaia-X.* They show a high level of acceptance and understanding of the added values of Gaia-X in the active community.
Andreas Weiss, Head of Digital Business Models at the eco Association, says: “Now that the basic components of Gaia-X and the Federation Services are clear to everyone, the implementation phase is about to begin, which must be accompanied by intensive community building. With this acceptance study, we would like to contribute to making the added values of the Gaia-X concept widely known and to support the adaptation in the market.”
Companies trust Gaia-X
62.5 percent of the respondents state that Gaia-X compliance creates sufficient trust for cooperation with other companies or organisations. A decentralised and flexible system like Gaia-X will only be used if companies have sufficient trust in the system and its participants. Gaia-X creates this trust through rules, compliance with which is monitored in a comprehensible way.
But there is still a lot to do until then: The products and services currently developed in the Gaia-X environment are not marketable, deliver 70.3 percent of the respondents. For about every second person, Gaia-X is growing too slowly. Only 19.1 percent agree with the statement “Gaia-X is growing fast enough to be interesting for our company/organisation.” Furthermore, the survey revealed that Gaia-X has not yet arrived at all companies and there is still uncertainty about the project in some cases. The study therefore recommends more community work and more concrete projects to increase the understanding and acceptance of Gaia-X.
The idea of cooperation has priority
Cooperation between actors of different sizes in Gaia-X is perceived as positive. At its current stage of development, Gaia-X meets the requirements for equal opportunities, 66 percent of the respondents agree. Most of the respondents say that Gaia-X is about added value through cooperation rather than competition. 70.2 percent agree with the statement: “Cooperation in a digital ecosystem like Gaia-X does not hinder competition between participants.”
The authors of the study conclude from the results that there is a basic acceptance for Gaia-X in the market and great need for a European initiative to create a secure and trustworthy data infrastructure. The Gaia-X initiative is supported by leading European companies and governments and has the potential to strengthen Europe’s single digital market.
* The survey “Acceptance of Gaia-X” was conducted from September to November 2022, coordinated by eco – Association of the Internet Industry and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action.
The German-language study can be downloaded from https://www.gxfs.eu/download/7438/. A summary in English will be available soon.
