Big Data remains one of the key topics in Germany and the market is growing impressively. According to a recent press release by German high-tech association Bitkom, sales of hardware, software and services in the field of Big Data will be approximately about 6.4 bn Euro in 2018. That’s a plus of 10 percent in comparison to the year before. Those numbers are based on calculations by the IT market research company IDC by order of Bitkom.

For digital companies, IT security remains the most relevant topic of the German ITC market in 2018. That is the result of a current survey by the German high-tech association Bitkom. Two thirds of the companies questioned (67 percent) name IT security as the most important trend.

After three industrial revolutions in the past, Europe is now on the verge of a fourth, which will irrevocably change the way goods are manufactured and services are offered. The term “Industry 4.0” refers to the computerization of the manufacturing industry. Physical objects will be seamlessly integrated into the information network, they are able to communicate with each other, exchange information and operate each other.

To remain economically successful, it is essential for a company to be part of this trend and to adapt its business model accordingly.

For the German IT market, Industry 4.0 is a new trend topic of the year 2015. Industry 4.0 promotes the computerization of the manufacturing industry. The goal is the intelligent factory (Smart Factory), which is characterized by adaptability, resource efficiency and ergonomics as well as the integration of customers and business partners in business and value processes. It includes adopting the Internet-of-Things (IoT) for manufacturing plants and processes.

In a recent trend survey by the German high-tech association BITKOM, "Industry 4.0" was ranked on position 4 with 42 percent of the questioned companies naming the topic as very relevant for them. This is a massive improvement compared to last year's result when the topic just emerged on position 10 with 22 percent of mentions.

When the sky over Germany is becoming increasingly cloudy these days this has only in part to do with the arrival of fall. The main reason lies in a new trend on the IT market: more and more US companies are opening data center in Germany to offer local cloud services to potential customers in Germany.

Enterprises such as Google, Oracle, Microsoft or Hewlett-Packard have already started establishing new computer centers in Germany or other European countries. Now the online retailing giant Amazon also announced that it will be opening a data center in Frankfurt for its Web Services unit that rents computing power and storage to consumers, businesses and government agencies.

bloodsugarmagic: David, you are one of the intellectual fathers of newsjacking and monitor the trend since years. What has changed over the last 1-2 years in using newsjacking?

David: What I’ve noticed recently is that almost everybody talking about newsjacking is doing so about events that you can predict the timing of. While I am encouraged by people newsjacking the World Cup and other events where we know the timing, I think the bigger opportunity is when something unexpected happens and you can jump in when nobody else is paying attention.

By the way, congratulations to Germany on the World Cup. I think Lufthansa did a great job newsjacking - this went out at the moment Germany clinched the title.