The successful roll-out of broadband connectivity in rural China enhanced inclusion because it has enabled villagers to participate in the national and even global economy. Trading has become more efficient for both buyers and sellers, and innovation lies in the Taobao platform: automation and economies of scale have reduced transaction costs to almost zero.

Emerging risks
But these benefits aren't reaching their full potential because they are offset by new risks, warns the World Bank. The report categorizes these risks as inequality, concentration and control.

One driver of inequality is lack of access. In 2005 a billion people were connected to the internet, 10 years later this number has risen to 3.2 billion. However, that still leaves the majority of the world's people without connectivity. As digital technologies continue to improve the living conditions of those who are connected, the inequality between online and offline people increases.

The risk of increasing inequality also lurks in societies with a high connectivity density: automation could kill off more jobs than it creates. If societies do not adapt to such a change the economic inequality gap will widen.

The second risk category, concentration, lies in vested business interests, policy uncertainty and lack of competition, which could result in harmful concentration or even monopolies in many sectors. And, lastly, there is the risk of upsetting the balance of power in favor of a select few. Companies and governments could harness digital technologies to control citizens rather than empower them.