Digital Sovereignty in Data Analytics

A buzzword is stirring debate in Berlin and Brussels – especially against the backdrop of political changes in the U.S.: digital sovereignty. States, companies, and individuals are expected to maintain control over their digital data, technologies, and systems.

Or more precisely: they should first regain that control – independent of external providers or foreign countries, particularly with regard to the U.S. Why this is a fundamentally important issue for the entire digital economy is clearly illustrated by Uli Hegge, CEO of the netID Foundation, in this piece on Meedia.

But what does digital sovereignty have to do with Upscore? First of all, we help measure performance. We are independent of international tech giants or financial investors. We operate a self-developed data and analytics infrastructure on dedicated servers in Germany. Our clients have full control over the business rules within our system (from Content Score to paywall targeting), giving them the capabilities needed to build digital publishing on a sovereign foundation.

We have paid a high price for giving up our independence.

Over the past two decades, our industry has gradually given away its independence – often for free – to so-called “social” networks, despite producing content at great cost. First Facebook, then YouTube and Twitter, later Instagram, and most recently TikTok. And almost all of our clients see the same thing in their data: the return is getting smaller, sometimes disappearing altogether. These platforms hardly generate traffic anymore – and even less monetizable traffic, such as digital subscriptions.

Ten years ago, 20% Facebook traffic was completely normal. In February, the median among Upscore clients was just 5%, with some even as low as 2%. The much-touted “love” for journalism – often proclaimed in personal conversations by Facebook representatives – has given way to cold, commercial indifference.

At Upscore, digital sovereignty also means something more: we want to see as many high-performing digital services “Made in Europe” as possible. We’re proud to make a small contribution to that – and so are you, as our clients.

Christian Hasselbring is responsible for Business Development at Upscore.