Overview
- In light of population growth, urbanization, and climate changes, public authorities and companies are focusing on mitigating these global challenges by implementing sustainable, efficient, and citizen-centered solutions in growing urban environments. An approach that has gradually become more popular to develop more sustainable and efficient cities is the “Smart City” approach.
- Denmark is one of the leading European nations in working with Smart City initiatives. In particular Copenhagen and Aarhus are far along in implementing these initiatives. The city of Copenhagen has especially emphasized on reducing CO2 emissions and aims at becoming carbon-neutral by 2025. Copenhagen’s efforts to use data as a tool to create a greener city and higher quality of life for its citizens have also been acknowledged globally. In 2014, “Copenhagen Connecting”, a concept for digital infrastructure, won the World Smart Cities award. The city of Aarhus launched in 2012 the project “Smart Aarhus” to find effective and sustainable solutions to tackle the challenges facing its urban life.
- The report “Mapping Smart Cities in the EU” indicates that Denmark is among the countries with the highest proportion of Smart Cities. More specifically, the report ranks Denmark as number one together with Sweden, Estonia, and Slovenia who have the largest share of major cities that can be characterized as Smart Cities.
Market Challenges
Challenges are mainly related to competition and/or ability to find the right partner and mode of entry. Most legislation is governed on an EU level.
Market Opportunities
‘Arup’, the international design and engineering consultancy, estimates that global smart urban services will grow to USD 400 billion annually by 2020. As Danish cities are investing substantially in the years to come in intelligent lighting and transport systems, climate adaption, energy renovation and retrofitting, smart grid technology, and digitalization of social and health care services, Denmark will account for a share of this market. Denmark is an ideal place to test Smart City Solutions.
Market Entry Strategy
- One way for U.S. firms to enter the market is to establish partnerships with public authorities, research institutions and other organizations that work with Smart City solutions. Unless a significant local presence is established, finding a strong local partner with the right network and access to decision makers is a must. The first step would be to become part of a Smart City project or pilot. For instance, Cisco and Hitachi established partnerships with the city of Copenhagen in 2014. Copenhagen’s partnership with Hitachi entailed that the company can use the city as a Big Data laboratory.
Resources
Prepared by the International Trade Administration. With its network of more than 100 offices across the United States and in more than 75 markets, the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce utilizes its global presence and international marketing expertise to help U.S. companies sell their products and services worldwide. Locate the trade specialist in the U.S. nearest you by visiting http://export.gov/usoffices.