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.
Azerbaijan consolidated its recent achievements in the ICT development in 2015.
Azerbaijan improved the positions on the ICT Development Index in 2015. Azerbaijan ranked 67th in the ICT development index of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), rising by three points compared to 2013 and by nine points compared to 2010.
According to the ITU, Azerbaijan's ICT development index was 5.79 in 2015.
Moreover, Azerbaijan ranked 60th place among 170 world countries at an average cost of ICT services. According to the ITU, the average cost of ICT services in Azerbaijan amounted to 1.4 percent of GDP per capita. The price of ICT services includes the average price on fixed telephony, mobile communication and broadband Internet services.
According to the ITU, the penetration rate of fixed telephony in Azerbaijan amounted to 18.87 percent, and mobile - 110.90 percent. Some 51.7 percent of households have computers in the country and Internet penetration level among home users is 54.6 percent.
Information and communication services worth 1.643 billion manat were rendered for Azerbaijan's population and organizations in 2015 or 6.8 percent more than in 2014.
Some 81 percent of income received through the sector accounted for the non-state enterprises during this period.
Around 72.6 percent of the total volume of information and communication services accounted for the services rendered to the population.
Some 53 percent of a total volume of obtained income accounted for mobile services. A volume of revenues obtained from mobile services in Azerbaijan hit 870.2 million manat in 2015. The income in the mobile communication sector declined by 4.8 percent compared to 2014.
Internet
The Internet penetration level is 61 percent in Azerbaijan. Some 20 users of fixed broadband Internet and 47 users of mobile broadband Internet account for every 100 people in the country.
Some 24,568 Internet resources have been registered in the national domain zone .az. As of 2015, the growth of the number of registered Internet resources in the domain zone .az was 6.7 percent.
Some 22,840 of the total number of websites registered in the domain zone account for Internet resources registered in the first level domain, which is 7.1 percent more than at the beginning of the year.
The most popular second-level domain is .com.az. Some 1,033 websites (a 2.4 percent growth) have been registered there. The domain .edu.az with 245 websites ranked third. As of 2015, the number of registered websites in the domain .edu.az increased by 14.4 percent.
The national zone .az officially began operating August 25, 1993. The cost of domain .az registration is 20 manat. An annual cost of technical support is also 20 manat.
e-commerce
E-commerce market volume amounted to 12.8 million manats in Azerbaijan in 2015, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee said. The total volume of retail e-commerce in Azerbaijan increased up to 1.9 times twofold compared to the same period of 2014.
Some 91.1 percent of goods purchased in 2015 accounted for legal entities and 8.9 percent - for physical entities.
Non-food items accounted for 96.2 percent of e-commerce market turnover.
The total retail sales volume amounted to 25.7 billion manats in Azerbaijan in 2015. The sales of consumer goods in the country increased by 10.9 percent in 2015 compared to the same period of 2014.
е-signature
The total number of electronic digital signatures (e-signatures) issued by the Azerbaijani National Certification Services Center in 2015 increased by 35.1 percent and hit 38,618 as of January 1, 2016. The state bodies were provided with 23,795 e-signatures, 6,910 e-signatures were issued to the legal entities and 7,913 to citizens.
The cost of the e-signature with a three-month period of its use for Azerbaijani citizens is 18 manats. The cost of the e-signature for physical and legal entities engaged in entrepreneurial activity, is 36 manat and 72 manat, respectively, while 80 manat for state servants.
Some 427 services of the total number of approved electronic services (461) 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 498.
Operating system market
According to the Global Stats center, as of 2015, the market share of Android operating system in Azerbaijan increased by 23.7 percent. Android is the most popular operating system in Azerbaijan. It ranks first with a 35 percent share on the operating system market. Android's share increased by 17.2 percent on the Azerbaijani operating system market compared to 2014.
A Microsoft Windows 7 market share decreased by 22 percent in Azerbaijan in 2015. Despite Windows 7 is gradually losing its positions, it is one of the most popular operating system in Azerbaijan and ranks second (as of January 1, 2016) on the operating system market with a 32.2 percent share. A Windows 7 share on the Azerbaijani operating system market reduced by 13.6 percent compared to 2014.
iOS with a 9.5 percent share ranked third. iOS market increased by 26.4 percent in 2015, Windows XP - 4.56 percent, Windows 8 - 2.49 percent, Windows 8.1 - 4.46 percent, Series 40 - 1.75 percent and others.