World Bank has told regulators to be flexible and realistic when making policies for technology companies, to avoid slowing digital revolution which has spread rapidly across the world.
The bank said most countries have not taken the proper approach in regulating digital services and products, resulting to an anti-competitive business environment which favours established firms.
“The economics of the internet favour natural monopolies. Although there are many individual success stories, the effect of technology on global productivity, expansion of opportunity for the poor and the middle class, and the spread of accountable governance has so far been less than expected,” it said in the World Development Report 2016 on digital dividends.
The report defines digital dividends as the broader development benefits from using the internet, mobile phones, and all the other tools to collect, store, analyse, and share information digitally.