Digital In Ukraine: What Else You Should Know About This Country

Before February 24th, few people could find Ukraine on a map, and even now for many, we are a distant country, about which only one thing is known — war. But as a Ukrainian, I want to tell a little more about us, so that the readers of this column know not only about our pain but also about our achievements. Here are five interesting points about how Ukrainians interact with the digital world and how digital affects our society.

The General State of Digitalisation in Society

Ukraine is gradually and systematically digitised. By the end of 2021, 86% of Ukrainians used the Internet — an indicator at the level of Eastern European countries; less than in Latvia, but more than in Poland.

If we compare historical data, 10 years ago the Internet was used by a minority, only 38% of the population; and even five years ago, in 2016, this indicator was at the level of 61%. This lagging of digitalisation from other countries can be explained by the isolationist policy of the Soviet Union and the economic problems it left behind. Thus, the first personal computers appeared in Ukraine almost 20 years later than in the rest of the world; and money to buy a computer and access the Internet appeared to the population even later.

Speaking of devices, Ukraine has now caught up with the global trend of mobile phone dominance. The majority of users accessed the Internet from their phone even at the end of 2021, but since the beginning of the Russian invasion, smartphones have significantly overtaken computers.

It should be noted that our digitisation has come in very handy. At a critical moment, people were finding out news not only from TV but also from YouTube accounts of TV channels, from Internet radio and social media. And one of the first applications the Ukrainians created since the invasion began was one that reports on air raids. But there are other manifestations of how digital helps real life.

Digital Transformation of Governmental Services 

Back in September 2019, the Ministry of Digital Transformation was created in Ukraine. This ministry is engaged in digitalisation of ways of citizen interaction with the state - on its website, the stated goal is to make 100% of public services available online by 2024.

Even before the creation of the specialised ministry, we had certain registers in electronic form, but with it, digitisation became more massive, and citizen access to information about the state or local self-government became more transparent.

So for now 84% of Ukrainians have a phone with the Diya application in their pocket, which allows you to open your own business or pay taxes for an existing one in a couple of clicks. All important documents of a citizen are available here: from passports to covid certificates.

After February 24th, Diya also added functions that allow you to help the army with money or information about the enemy, and the ability to report property damaged during the war. And for a while, the application even had a 'digital sedative' — a mini-game where the player flies a Bayraktar (a popular drone that became a meme due to its effectiveness).

Online Healthcare

A few years before the coronavirus pandemic, Ukrainians had electronic medical cards and the ability to remotely consult a family doctor and receive all the necessary referrals without leaving home. Of course, as with any innovation, there were difficulties with implementation on the ground. However, we entered the pandemic already with this base, in 2020 84% of Ukrainians chose a family doctor, that is, they began to enjoy the benefits of the reform. We continued to use these same opportunities even after the Russian invasion. Most Ukrainians abroad can at least write or call their doctor in Ukraine and get advice from a specialist who knows their medical history.

I will tell a personal story. When I get to know my current family doctor in 2020, she was consulting via Viber another patient, who was stuck in Poland. And when I needed help in 2022, the doctor also consulted remotely and prescribed a referral to a specialist, even though she was abroad at the time.

Banking and FinTech

Our country is lucky to have almost the coolest financial technology experts who pushed the entire niche forward — Monobank. At one time, its developers forced the entire banking sector to catch up with the young project in a hurry both in terms of technology and customer service. Nowadays, it is difficult to imagine a bank without an application, although in 2017, even the presence of a properly working web office was a wonder available to few market players. This is a subjective view, but it is based on repeated attempts to use the services of different banks.

Of course, Monobank is not the only client-oriented bank in the world with a convenient interface. We can also mention the Kazakh Kaspi, which entered the Ukrainian market in the summer of 2021, or British Revolut (whose cofounder Vlad Yatsenko, by the way, is Ukrainian too). And the founders of Mono themselves open similar projects abroad - Leobank in Azerbaijan or Koto in Great Britain. However, it must be recognised that not all countries are so lucky. Citizens of some countries have to pay utility bills in branches or even send physical checks by mail, not because of a love for vintage, but because of the lack of modern analogues.

If we speak in the context of the war, here too the digitalisation of banks came in handy and played its role in the phenomenon of the Ukrainian volunteer movement. We used to have a 'charity' tab in many banking applications, where you could donate to certain charitable funds. Now, many people use the product 'jars' (in Ukrainian it is a homonym of the word bank) in charity gatherings, which display information about the fund, the purpose, and progress of the gathering, the number of donors, etc. 

Dropping money to any fund is now even easier than purchasing in an online store. And that brings us to the next point.

Electronic payments everywhere

Speaking of finances, it should be noted that Ukraine has a high share of electronic, non-cash payments. Before the Russian invasion, nine out of 10 financial transactions in Ukraine were carried out without cash, according to NBU data published on February 22nd.

We pay with cards, phones, and QR codes everywhere: in shops, cafes, public transport etc. We leave a cashless tip for waiters and buy gasoline cashless in gas station applications to save time.

And at a critical moment, it turned out to be important. After all, during the panic, it was somewhat difficult for the cashiers to work normally (like all other people, there was a panic) - for several days, the government even officially asked people to pay with cards to minimise the need to move cash. I hope someday in the history books we will learn the extent of this influence. But it is already possible to claim that cashless operations support the safety of both individuals and society as a whole. And the ratio of cash and non-cash transactions indirectly indicates the transparency of society and its democracy.

Conclusion

Ukraine is not only about pain and war. Ukraine is also about strong people and good specialists who know how to build cool things. One of the best ways to help Ukraine now is to give jobs to Ukrainian refugees in your country, or to freelancers working from Ukraine. And you can rest assured, that they will quickly master the necessary technologies and perform work at the highest level.

PS: We are waiting for visiting tourists for the upcoming Victory Day - the date will be announced later 💙

Column by Polina Kedis, Content Marketer at newage. digital agency