The overall results reveal a high level of trust in routers manufactured in Europe (60%), as well as strong distrust of products from China (52%), Russia (57%), and the United States (38%). Furthermore, many respondents are unaware of the origin of the networking devices they have purchased or obtained through their internet service provider.
In Spain, distrust of Chinese manufacturers is considerably lower than in Europe as a whole, affecting 36% of respondents, compared to the European average of 52%. However, more than half of Spaniards (54%) consider the fact that a router is manufactured in Europe to be an important factor when choosing their device.
High level of trust in European routers
The study highlights the importance Spanish consumers place on the European origin of products. 54% of respondents in Spain consider it important that devices are manufactured in Europe, a slightly lower proportion than the average across the countries analyzed (55%). This data confirms that the “Made in Europe” label continues to have a significant influence on consumers' purchasing decisions. Participants were also asked to what extent they trust or distrust European and non-European router manufacturers.
Sixty percent of Spaniards say they trust devices manufactured in Europe. However, they show a notable distrust of routers from China (36%) and Russia (57%), followed by those manufactured in the United States (31%). In any case, Spain is below the study average in terms of distrust of devices originating outside Europe.
Great lack of knowledge about the origin of the routers
The study also reveals that Spaniards have difficulty identifying the origin of the routers they use at home or in the office. To this end, respondents were asked about two well-known brands. The results indicate that 46% are unaware of the origin of TP-Link, and only 14% correctly associate it with China. In the case of FRITZ!, 60% also cannot identify its origin, although 18% correctly place it in Europe. At the European level (outside of Germany), only a third (34%) identify FRITZ! as a European brand. Another striking finding of the study is that barely six out of ten Spanish users are able to identify the European origin of internet service providers such as Vodafone, O2, or MásOrange. These figures place Spain slightly below the European average (63.5%) and quite far behind countries like Germany or Belgium, where more than 70% of respondents correctly identify the European origin of their operators.
Study details:
Online survey conducted by YouGov in 14 European countries (Austria, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom). Fieldwork was carried out in April 2016 with a total of 16,474 participants. The sample was stratified and weighted by age, gender, and region in each country to ensure representative results for the resident population aged 18 and over.
