B.C tech industry is a relatively young industry compared to the traditional B.C industries such as forestry, transportation and tourism having developed over the past 40 years or so. British Columbia tech industry has largely developed in part by necessities of other domestic industries – most tech firms in B.C are geared in support of other major industries in the region, and new innovations. New innovations and new tech/software introduced to BC tech industry are primarily through the research and development efforts at universities and other research organizations. B.C tech industry is mostly comprised of software and service firm which account for 91% of the industry. It is an industry that has grown fast and quite noticeably in the recent years with the BC government setting aside 100 million in …show more content…
However the B.C tech industry is encompassed of small firms, with roughly 7000 firms employing less than 10 employees and approximately 5800 firms employing less than 5. Only 348 companies have more than 50 employees. The industry also has vast number of independent entrepreneurs working as consultant and contractors. B.C’s top firms include TELUS, Bell Canada, Lifelabs and Electronic Arts and Sony picture imageworks. According to the Business council of British Columbia, Tech sector of BC employees roughly 86000 British Columbians and represents ~4.5% of the total provincial workforce. These employees tend to earn roughly twice and average employee's salary though they remain relatively compared to the global market. In the global market BC tech sector is relatively small with major industry competitors in Oregon tending to be responsible for 23% of the state's GDP compared to BC’s 6.5%. It believed that BC tech industry is primarily domestic and has still a major untapped export market. Currently on 20% of the revenue is created via exports in this