In a country that produces Mercedes and Porsches, some 77% of companies still send their documents via a 60-year-old technology: the fax machine.
That's according to a survey published on Monday by the digital association Bitkom. It asked over 600 companies with 20 or more employees about whether they used a fax.
The statistics show that the facsimile device is seeing a slow but steady decline in Germany: a year ago, 82% of companies surveyed stated that they had not said goodbye to the fax. In 2022, the figure was 88%, in 2020 it was 92 % and in 2018 even 95%.
A quarter of German companies still use a fax frequently or very frequently, the survey said.
"Although fax use in German companies has been declining for years, the change is taking place surprisingly slowly - especially when you consider that there have long been more convenient and secure modes of communication," said Bitkom expert Daniil Heinze.
Even those firms loathe to throw their fax in the rubbish bin do have alternatives when it comes to transmitting signed documents, he said. These include a digital signature, the electronic data interchange or EDI standard for exchanging documents digitally, or other special email formats, he said.