Berlin has established itself as an important European hub for the services industries.

With the decision of BASF to open a European Shared Service Center (ESSC) in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, which now has over 2,000 jobs, more and more service center from the areas of finance and accounting move to Berlin. Deutsche Bank has set up its international center for risk management with around 700 employees in Charlottenburg. Daimler, the finance subsidiary Mercedes Bank and Amazon opened customer center in Mitte, as well as for example Deutsche Lufthansa, Bosch and Lidl.

Berlin offers the following advantages

Location of large international companies - cross-sector e.g. Amazon, BASF (ESSC), Deutsche Bank, Mercedes Bank, Ebay and Sony Music
Highly qualified talent
Seat of the Federal Government, home to embassies, associations and lobbyists
Modern telecommunications infrastructure
Good nationwide and regional accessibility
Close cooperation between science and industry in over 70 non-university research institutions
Comprehensive funding opportunities and funding programs for investments, innovations, start-ups and growth
High quality of life

Market potential

Berlin offers a large local market with approx. 3.7 million consumers, the metropolitan region with over 6 million.
Services make up Berlin's largest economic sector with the highest proportion of start-ups and enterprises locating to the city.
In 2021, the service sectors accounted for 78.6 % of added value in Berlin and are therefore at a similarly good level as before the pandemic.
The company-related service providers have created the majority of the new jobs in Berlin in recent years. A total of 11,900 jobs were added (based on 660,000 jobs in 2019). And are therefore a strong and important pillar of the Berlin economy.
There is still a strong dynamic in the communication, consulting and service industries.
In the context of Berlin's information and communication technologies, new services are in demand and have emerged. More than 12,600 new jobs were created in 2021.
A large pool of qualified management talent and trained specialists is available to employers.
Numerous research institutions and a strong start-up ecosystem promote an innovative climate and economic growth.

The effects of the Corona pandemic weighed on individual branches of the service economy, while other branches are showing good growth (for example, online retailing and Q-commerce). Similar developments are characterized by the current situation caused by the Ukraine crisis.

Berlin offers the best opportunities for:

Domestic and foreign administrative centers
Company representative offices and Berlin offices
Services for companies and institutions
Trade fair and event management companies
Advertising, public relations and marketing
Service and customer centers
Further education institutions such as coding schools
Associations

(Sources: e.g. Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises Economic Report 2021, Berlin Partner for Business and Technology Annual Reports)