The Azerbaijani information and communication technology sector (ICT) is one of the most dynamically developing sectors of the national economy due its profitability and total profitability of this business. Although the main catalyst for the growth of Azerbaijan's economy is the oil and gas sector, the ICT sector also increases its capacity every year.
The share of the ICT sector in Azerbaijan's GDP was 2.3 percent, while 3.3 percent in non-oil GDP for the first quarter of the year. Some 80.1 percent of revenues received in the ICT sector accounted for the private sector.
Information and communication services worth 379.4 million manat were rendered for Azerbaijan's population and organizations in January-March 2015 or 9.3 percent more than in the same period of 2014, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee's report says.
Around 72.4 percent of the total volume of information and communication services accounted for the services rendered to the population.
Some 54.3 percent of a total volume of obtained income accounted for mobile services.
A total volume of revenues obtained from mobile services in Azerbaijan hit 206.2 million manat in January-March, which is 0.5 percent more than in the same period of 2014.
The volume of investments in the ICT sector of Azerbaijan amounted to 104.5 million manat in January-March 2015. The enterprises and structural subdivisions of the ministry invested 41.2 million manat in the ICT sector in the first quarter.
The investments, made in the ICT sector of Azerbaijan, have hit 3.2 percent of investments in the country's economy since early 2015 and threefold more than in the same period of 2014.
Some 16 new automatic telephone exchanges were put into operation through these investments. One automatic telephone exchange was reconstructed. Some 24 automatic telephone exchanges were modernized.
As a result, the numbering capacity of the automatic telephone exchange network throughout the country exceeded 1.84 million, while the number of the main telephone sets - 1.49 million.
A 138.5 kilometer-cable line was laid through the investments. The number of ADSL ports increased by more than 12,900.
The volume of income received in the ICT sector and postal services of Azerbaijan, amounted to 397.3 million manat in the first quarter, which is 10.5 percent more than in the same period of 2014. The income received by the structural units of the ministry amounted to 77.9 million manat in January-March.
The voice traffic volume consumed over the public telephone network decreased by 29.7 percent in Azerbaijan in January-March 2015. The incoming traffic volume decreased by 29.1 million minutes and reached 68.7 million minutes in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same period of last year.
The outgoing traffic volume also decreased by 27.5 percent (9.1 million minutes) and amounted to 24 million minutes in January-March. This index decreased because of an increase in the number of broadband connections and popularity of Internet telephony.
The capacity of international Internet channels increased by 32 percent and reached 330 Gigabits in Azerbaijan in the first quarter of 2015 compared to January-March 2014.
As of April 1, 2015, the Internet penetration level in the country was 75 percent. Some 62 percent of the Azerbaijani population accounted for the broadband Internet users.
e-commerce
E-commerce market volume amounted to 2.720 million manat in Azerbaijan in January-March 2015.
The total volume of retail e-commerce in Azerbaijan increased by 1.7 times compared to the same period of 2014.
E-commerce market participants are legal and physical entities engaged in e-commerce and buyers of goods and services.
Some 92.7 percent of goods purchased in electronic form by the population of Azerbaijan in 2014 accounted for legal entities and 7.3 percent - physical entities.
Non-food items accounted for 96.3 percent of e-commerce market turnover.
The total retail trade volume amounted to 5.8 billion manat in Azerbaijan in January-March 2015. The sales of consumer goods in the country increased by 9.6 percent compared to January-March 2014.
About 50.2 percent fell to non-food items. The share of non-food items increased by 2.9 percentage points compared to January-March 2014.
е-signature
The total number of electronic digital signatures (e-signatures) issued by the Azerbaijani National Certification Services Center in March 2015 increased by 2 percent and hit 30,704 as of March 1 compared to February, the Information Computer Center under the Azerbaijani Communication and High Technology Ministry said.
The state bodies were provided with 18,029 e-signatures, 5,367 e-signatures were issued to the legal entities and 7,308 to citizens.
Some 332 services of the total number of approved electronic services (452) are available on the "electronic government" (e-gov.az) portal. The total number of e-services placed on the websites of Azerbaijani state organizations is 461.
A significant increase in the number of appeals to the "e-government" portal was observed.
As of March 2015, this figure exceeded 448,000.
PC market
The sales of stationary personal computers (desktops) increased by 4.1 percent in Azerbaijan in the first quarter of this year.
The market share of stationary desktop computers hit 61.28 percent in Azerbaijan as of January-March 2015. The stationary desktop computer market decreased by 11.26 percent compared to the same period of January-March 2014.
A decrease of 5.68 percent was recorded in the market share for portable computers such as notebooks and netbooks in Azerbaijan as of three months of 2015. The market share of laptops in Azerbaijan makes up 34.07 percent in January-March. This segment increased by 28.85 percent compared to the same period of 2014.
Tablet computers rank third in the ranking with a share of 4.65 percent. The decrease of this segment of the market amounted to 7.74 percent in January-March 2015. Furthermore, the tablet device segment increased by 2.87 percent compared to the same period of 2014.