Media, IT and Design, Creative Industries

Hamburg still remains Germany's number one media capital, with around 15,000 companies located here: these are companies in the advertising and publishing sector, in the cultural sector, in the print and broadcasting media, or in the music, TV and film industries. The city of Hamburg offers media companies a unique combination of location advantages:

A media landscape representing all industries, with a large variety of businesses. This is a vital aspect, given increasing media convergence.
A large variety of competent service providers, particularly including small and medium-sized contractors.
Qualified and skilled personnel.
The high quality of life and infrastructure in the metropolitan area.
A creative environment with many interesting contacts and active networks.

Hamburg is also the location for a wide and varied range of IT companies, numbering around 8,500. The range covers software consultancy and development to hardware consultancy, manufacturing of equipment and parts, data processing services, telecommunications and multimedia. All signs point to continued growth of the IT sector in Hamburg: a tight network of industries and businesses, proximity to corporate and commercial clients, attractive commercial and office space, a wide range of university and graduate courses, plus Hamburg's progressive marketing strategy as a business/industrial location.

Hamburg is the design capital for the consumer goods industry and ranks among the top design centres for the capital goods industry. The 2,000 designers and design agencies based in Hamburg offer a broad spectrum of services in virtually every area of design (industrial, product, fashion, textile, communications, packaging, corporate and brand profiling), ranging from product development through to the establishment and management of brand identities in the market. The numerous nominations and placings of Hamburg-based design agencies in competitions at national and Federal state level are a consistent and convincing indicator of the scale and value of the innovation and design potential available in Hamburg.

Please see the downloads for further information of the industries:

Our Industry Structure diagrams show the total number of Hamburg companies within each industry, broken down by the different sector within an industry.
Our sector portraits content a good first overview about the different industries (available in German and English). It may be downloaded above or may be ordered free of charge at the service-center. Please write an e-mail with your address to service@hk24.de.

Strengthening the position of Hamburg as a media, IT and design location by creating appropriate framework conditions is a key task which is being driven forward jointly with entrepreneurs who are voluntarily committing their time to the Chamber of Commerce Committees for the Media Economy and for E-Business. In addition to representing member interests, the Chamber of Commerce also prepare service brochures and sectoral portraits, arrange information events and regular company censuses, as well as posting innovations and things worth knowing on the media, IT and design sectoral portal. The creative industries are an economic factor of major importance in Hamburg. Going beyond these sector-related services, support is also given to SMEs in all sectors, including in the use of e-business and design.