Virtido Center for Data Science & AI

Swiss IT industry trends, by canton

COVID-19 impacted many business sectors. However, according to the Swiss Software Industry Survey 2021, 72.9% of the Swiss IT firms showed resiliency post-crisis, and in fact, the crisis became a strong driver of economic activity. A deep dive into the Swiss IT industry trends uncovered the following details in the tech landscape:

• More than 50% of Switzerland´s Computer and IT companies, are located out of Zürich. This is not surprising, considering that Zürich is Switzerland´s financial hub
• The next canton with the most significant presence is Bern, the capital canton followed by Zug. Zug´s favorable tax structure could explain its dominance over the others.
• However, one canton stands out and that is Nidwalden, which is home to SoftwareONE, the behemoth that has a turnover exceeding that of all the cantons put together. They are experts in cloud and end-to-end software technologies with near 8,700 employees in 90 countries around the world.

The map lets you discover how the other cantons fare in terms of turnover. The darker the circle, the higher the turnover.

Source: Dun & Bradstreet

Industry trends in Data Science vacancies for Switzerland

Statements such as “Data is a new oil” (The Economist) and “Data scientist is the sexiest job in 21st century” (Harvard Business Review) are common these days.  US tech giants such as Netflix, Spotify, Amazon, Google are using AI technologies to grow and prosper their business. But according to this graph: 

• More industries in different countries, including Switzerland, are benefiting from the continued interest in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence 
• The top 10 industries that contribute to around 75% of the Gross Value Added (GVA) in Switzerland (Swiss Federal Statistics) are seeking to hire 80% of the data scientist workforce 

Needless to say, the impact of Data Analytics and Science will soon reverberate through these industries as well. The Center’s key value proposition is to help these industries monetize their data for them. 

           Data Science vacancies for Switzerland snapshot, August 2021

      Source (vacancies): https://ch.talent.com/jobsk=Data+Scientist&l=switzerland&id=eac1af9f47c0  

      Source (GVA): https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfsstatic/dam/assets/15304866/master 

Where are the world´s Data Science companies located?

In this world where data is the new currency, a measure of innovation of a country can be arrived at by counting the number of Data Science companies. On this map, the darker the country, the higher the concentration of Data Science companies there. Clearly, we have a front runner in the United States of America, followed by India. To see the exact number of firms, hover over the land of interest.

We created this using information from GoodFirms, a research firm that aims to identify and recognize the best and most well-performing software development firms from across the globe. To identify the DS firms from their expansive list, we filtered those firms that offer Big Data & AI services.

Note: For companies with two locations, both the locations were counted separately.

Using Data Science to mitigate risk from natural disasters

Floods are amongst the most frequent and destructive types of disasters, causing significant damage and disrupting livelihoods throughout the world. 

Data Science is being used to determine 

• risk accumulation 

• proximity alerts for natural disasters 

This information is delivered and visualized in the form of Hazard maps which are designed to mitigate risk and inform the public, local authorities, and organizations with the purpose of minimizing loss and damage. 

Quarticle is currently working on river flood hazard zones for several European countries in a project for one of their insurance customers, and this is an example for the Zagreb area. These zones are usually mathematically modeled by using high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) that can be derived from LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) measurements and characteristics of the hydrological network.

For more information, please get in touch with Loredana Cretu, Senior Account Manager, at loredana.cretu@quarticle.rom.

Follow Quarticle on   

Your Cheat Sheet on the Swiss insurance market

Some interesting nuggets on the Swiss insurance market for 2020  

• Volume: Generated CHF 117 bn  in written premiums (FINNMA)  
• Employment: Employed 47, 000 people, 44% of which are women (Swiss Insurance Association) 
• Role in the economy: Contributed to 4.6% of contribution to Gross Value Added (GVA) for the economy  
• Distribution by type of insurance: Home to 183 insurers (life/non-life) and re-insurers. Though only 10 % of insurers offer life insurance products, life insurance written premiums are a quarter of the total premiums for the country. The reinsurance presence here is also formidable as even though they constitute 25% of the market, they account for 40% of the total written premium. This could be explained in the nature of reinsurance companies themselves who deal with higher risks associated with essential disasters like floods or pandemics. 

     Swiss insurance market overview, 2020

                     Source: https://www.finma.ch/en/documentation/finma-publications/kennzahlen-und-statistiken/kennzahlen/kennzahlen-versicherer/  

Covid- 19 and the Swiss Insurance Market

Covid-19 impacted all industries, including the robust Swiss Insurance market. Here are some highlights for 2020 in comparison to 2019 

• Swiss insurer revenues dropped by 51%   
• Reinsurance companies’ revenue as a share of overall revenue dropped by 21%  
• Non-life insurance expanded the market share by 20 percentage points 

 The significant losses of the Reinsurance segment could be explained due to the leading re-insurer, Swiss Re´s group financial restructuring. Due to the re-organization, Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd assumed the debts of its Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, leading to a significant revenue drop.

Data source:  Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA

Top-10 Swiss insurers revenue share comparison

Switzerland´s insurance market had a less than stellar performance in 2020 compared to 2019. Following are some highlights 

• In 2020, 183 Insurance and Reinsurance companies generated a profit of CHF 7.5 billion (FINMA), but this is half of what was reported in 2020 
• The market is concentrated in that only 5% of firms contribute to 78% of the profit. 

Below you will find a y/y revenue share comparison of the industry’s top-10 insurers and reinsurers.

Switzerland Mobility Trends, 2019 - 2022

Implementation of vehicle electrification aims to reduce Switzerland's greenhouse emissions from land transport to a net-zero target by 2050 . Though cantons haven't decided on effective strategies to meet their goals yet, Swiss citizens show their responsibility and awareness as the statistics below indicate:

• The number of registered petrol passenger cars have been declined yearly by 28%, while the numbers of electric cars increase 30% annually
• The share of conventional hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electric vehicle in total vehicles reached 50% in 2022. Their numbers are almost five times now than in 2019.

Below you can observe the dynamics of Swiss transport infrastructure change.

Source: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/mobility-transport/transport-infrastructure-vehicles/vehicles/road-new-registrations.assetdetail.20884560.html

Top Swiss industries by turnover (Millions CHF) and number of companies

Does size matter? Or, in our case, does the presence of a larger volume of companies suppose more industry turnover in general?

From Dun & Bradstreet´s list of 500 Swiss biggest companies, we see the below

• the top 10 industries generated 78% of the total turnover
• commodity trading is one of the oldest industries globally and the one with the most considerable turnover, but it has the smallest presence in terms of count of companies in Switzerland
• Computer & IT sector, with the greatest number of companies in one industry (45%), contributed 3% to the total turnover, which is 20% less than commodity trading.

The correlation between the number of firms and turnover is 0,4 meaning a weak connection and making the calculations above rather exciting facts than a rule of thumb.

Discover the interactive graph below to see other industries' turnover. The intensity of color shows turnover volume- the lighter the color, the lower the turnover. Square size indicates the sum of the number of companies. Larger the size, the more the number of companies in that industry.

Source: Dun & Bradstreet