Irish employment in social media companies drops 11% since 2022

James Cox

Digital Business Ireland has called on the Government to do more to support Ireland’s digital and tech sector after new data showed a fall-off in the number of social media companies operating in Ireland and an 11 per cent fall in jobs in the sector.

Data provided by the Department of Enterprise in response to a recent parliamentary question shows that the number of social media companies operating in Ireland has fallen by a fifth, from 40 in 2022 to 32 last year, while the number of employees in social media companies has fallen by 11 per cent from 15,478 in 2022 to 13,744 last year.

DBI said it "welcomes the commitments in the new Programme for Government to make Ireland an EU centre of expertise and a regulatory hub for companies operating across the EU Digital Single Market, while also ensuring that Ireland benefits from the innovation and investment potential of new technologies like AI".

However, "DBI believes the Programme for Government’s ambition must be matched with a pro-business, pro-growth approach to supporting Ireland’s digital and tech sector to balance digital compliance and growth".

In particular, DBI is calling on the Government to:

• Review and enhance the mandate and work of the Data Protection Commission and the State’s enterprise agencies to provide enhanced advisory and support services for businesses.
• Champion an accelerated simplification of EU digital regulation, to boost innovation and growth across the digital and tech sectors, and to seek data transfer agreements with more third countries.

Digital Business Ireland chairperson Caroline Dunlea said: “The fall-off in jobs in social media companies operating in Ireland provides a timely reminder that Ireland must not take the digital and tech sector for granted.

“Government must do more to protect jobs in the digital and tech sectors and to safeguard Ireland’s reputation as a supportive base for global digital and tech companies.

“A pro-business, pro-growth approach to supporting the digital and tech sectors must be prioritised by the coalition as part of its competitiveness agenda.”