What Digital Value Should Remain Inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?

What Digital Value Should Remain Inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?

In the early stages of digital expansion, attention usually focuses on visible movement: more platforms, more services, faster digital contracts, and wider diffusion of tools and applications. All of these are important indicators, but they do not settle the most important economic question. Not every expanding digital market necessarily means that the economy is retaining its value, and not every active digital space means that what is generated inside it remains within its national economic boundaries. This is where the question that must be asked clearly in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia begins: if digital activity is expanding, what exactly should remain from it inside the national economy?

This is not a narrow accounting question, nor is it an objection to openness, trade, platforms, or cross-border digital services. It is a question of economic maturity. Economies are not judged only by what they produce moment by moment, but also by what they retain from that production in the form of:

• knowledge, 
• assets, 
• data, 
• operating capability, 
• market rules, 
• and future accumulation potential. 

That is why the issue in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is no longer simply whether there is a growing digital economy. The 2024 Digital Economy Survey showed that the digital economy accounted for 16.0% of GDP, compared with 15.6% in 2023, with the broad digital economy representing the largest share of that contribution. This means digital activity is no longer marginal, and the question is no longer whether a digital economy exists, but how to ensure that a meaningful share of its value remains inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is translated into national economic depth. 

From Movement to Value Retention

A digital market may be highly active, yet still remain less mature if everything it generates passes through without leaving a cumulative effect. Thousands of services may be delivered, vast quantities of data may be generated, and platform transactions may multiply, but the real question remains:
what is left behind after this movement?

Does it leave behind:

• a digital asset? 
• an organized data base? 
• market knowledge? 
• domestic operating capability? 
• a repeatable product? 
• a national reputation that can scale? 
• or only short-term income that disappears after each cycle? 

This is the difference between a digital economy that moves and a digital economy that builds itself.
The earlier topics in the series have led naturally to this point: we began with measurement, moved to assets, then to data, then to platforms and ecosystems. All of this leads logically to the tenth question: after measuring activity, discussing assets, elevating the role of data, and understanding that the platform alone is not enough, what should the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia actually retain from all of this digital value?

What Is Meant by Produced Digital Value?

Produced digital value does not mean only the direct income generated by a service, subscription, or sale. It is much broader. It includes:

• revenue generated by digital activity, 
• data created by the market, 
• intangible assets built through that activity, 
• accumulated operational knowledge, 
• the ability to turn expertise into products, 
• and market relationships that become the basis for future value. 

That is why the question of “what should remain” does not mean that everything must be physically locked inside the country. It means that the most important forms of qualitative value should not evaporate entirely outside the national economy.

WIPO shows that investment in intangible assets — such as software, data, brands, design, and organizational capital — has become central to modern economies, and that software and databases have been among the fastest-growing categories of intangible assets between 2013 and 2022. This confirms that much of what should remain from digital value today is not always a factory or a physical asset, but often an intangible one of real economic weight. 

What Should Actually Remain Inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?

If the question is answered carefully, then what should remain inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from produced digital value can be summarized in five interconnected layers.

First: a meaningful share of income itself should remain

Not in the sense of reducing openness or preventing exchange, but in the sense that the digital market should not become only a passageway for activity without visible domestic effect. If services are produced, contracts executed, and platforms active, then a meaningful share of that should translate into:

• local income, 
• local spending, 
• local employment, 
• and a stronger domestic economic base. 

This is the first and most visible layer.

Second: data should remain as an economic asset

This connects directly to topic eight.
The data generated inside the digital market of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia should not be treated as a background effect without weight, but as economic and informational material that helps:

• understand the market, 
• improve services, 
• refine pricing, 
• identify higher-value sectors, 
• and build new assets. 

OECD explicitly frames data as an intangible asset contributing to production, even though it is not yet fully captured in standard measurement systems. This makes the question of retaining and using it more important, not less. 

Third: digital assets should remain, not services alone

If the market only sells hours and services, then it may expand, but it does not accumulate deeply. But if part of this activity turns into:

• tools, 
• products, 
• systems, 
• intellectual property, 
• templates, 
• or repeatable structures, 

then value no longer remains only in direct revenue. It becomes an asset that can be built on, financed, and scaled.

OECD has highlighted that intangible assets such as data and software are often hard to value but economically critical in the digital economy. That means a central part of what should remain inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not only activity itself, but the intangible assets produced by that activity. 

Fourth: operational and market knowledge should remain

This point is often neglected.
Every digital market, over time, generates deep knowledge about:

• what works, 
• what fails, 
• what clients demand, 
• which sectors hold the highest value, 
• where skill gaps exist, 
• and how products and services become repeatable. 

If this knowledge leaves the market, or remains scattered without structure, then a major part of value leaves with it. Knowledge here is not just personal experience. It is part of national competitive capability.

Fifth: the ability to shape rules and standards should remain

This links directly to topic nine.
A more mature digital market is not only the one with more platforms, but the one with stronger capacity to:

• understand its own rules, 
• improve them, 
• build trust, 
• raise transparency, 
• and connect the market to the national economy rather than only to fast operational flow. 

This means that part of what should remain inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not only money, data, or assets, but also the capacity to shape the market itself.

What Does the Chinese Lens Add?

The Chinese lens adds a clear strategic dimension:
value should not be read only as an operational result, but as part of the national economic structure.
From this perspective, the question is not only: how much did the platform earn, or how much did services grow?
It is also:

• what remained inside the economy? 
• what became cumulative capability? 
• what became part of structural strength rather than passing motion? 

From this angle, if the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wants deeper digital economic maturity, it needs to see digital value as strategic material, not merely as a momentary commercial outcome. This does not mean isolation. It means not being satisfied with surface numbers while neglecting whether the national structure itself has become stronger.

What Does the Japanese Lens Add?

The Japanese lens adds a very important lesson:
retaining value does not happen by slogan, but through disciplined gradualism.
A market does not move from fast operational movement to national economic accumulation merely by declaring such a goal. It moves through stages:

• improving the environment, 
• increasing trust, 
• strengthening repeatability, 
• stabilizing rules, 
• and step by step turning activity into something that can remain. 

So in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the question should not only be: what do we want to remain?
It should also be: what must be built gradually so that this value can remain at all?

What Does the Australian/American Measurement Lens Add?

This lens prevents the discussion from drifting into vague language about “retaining value” without content.
To say that value remained inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we need to know:

• what exactly are we measuring? 
• income? 
• assets? 
• data? 
• repeatability? 
• value added? 
• impact on the non-oil economy? 

OECD has repeatedly noted that the measurement of data, data flows, and related intangible assets is still evolving, and that many components of modern digital value do not appear easily in traditional statistics. That means the question of “what should remain” cannot be separated from the question of “how will we see and measure it?” 

What Does the European Lens Add?

The European lens adds governance, transparency, and regulation.
Value does not remain through markets alone. It also remains through rules that shape:

• who retains the data, 
• who sets access conditions, 
• who captures economic advantage, 
• how platforms and algorithms are governed, 
• and what becomes visible in the formal statistical and regulatory framework. 

In this sense, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not only need more digital activity. It also needs a more mature governance environment that makes readable and retainable digital value possible. Otherwise, much of this value may remain locked inside intermediaries or flow outward without becoming national economic depth.

Why Does This Matter for the Non-Oil Economy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?

Because the non-oil economy does not expand only through a greater number of activities. It expands through higher-quality value generation.
Digital value that remains inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the form of:

• data, 
• assets, 
• knowledge, 
• operating capability, 
• productivity gains, 
• and improved products and services, 

makes the non-oil economy deeper and more durable than activity that moves quickly but leaves little lasting effect.

UNCTAD’s recent work reminds us that the digital economy, e-commerce, and digitally delivered services are growing rapidly worldwide, but that the gaps in understanding value creation and value capture remain large, especially in developing and emerging economies. This strengthens the need for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia not to settle for movement alone, but to keep asking: where does the value go, and what part of it remains here? 

How Should This Question Be Understood at This Stage?

If the previous topics built the road, then this tenth topic is what tests the maturity of that entire road.
Measurement alone is not enough if we do not know what we want to retain.
Assets alone are not enough if they do not remain inside the market in meaningful form.
Data alone is not enough if it does not become knowledge and value.
And the platform is not enough if it does not become part of a deeper ecosystem.

That is why the question of “what should remain” is not an extra question. It is the natural economic conclusion of this phase. It moves the discussion from merely describing digital activity to identifying what makes that activity truly useful to the national economy over time.

Conclusion

The digital economy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not measured only by the volume of its movement, but also by the ability of that movement to leave something behind.
It should leave behind local income, digital assets, readable data, accumulated knowledge, and stronger capacity to shape rules and understand the market.
If all movement simply passes through without leaving such effects, then the market may appear active, but it remains shallower than it should be.

That is why the governing question of this stage is not:
how do we increase digital activity alone?

It is:
what digital value should remain inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia so that the digital economy moves from expanding motion to accumulated national depth?