Information and communication services worth 391.7 million manat were rendered for Azerbaijan's population and organizations in January-March 2017, which is by 5.1 percent more than in January-March 2016.
Some 80.5 percent of income received through the communication sector accounted for the non-state enterprises during the reporting period.
Around 71.4 percent of the total volume of information and communication services accounted for the services rendered to the population. Some 48.5 percent of a total volume of obtained income accounted for mobile services.
Around 189.9 million manat were obtained from the mobile communication services in Azerbaijan in January-March 2017.
The revenues increased by 0.3 percent in the mobile communication sector in January-March 2017 compared to January-March 2016.
Mobile communication market
Over 62,800 mobile devices were registered in the IMEI-code system in March 2017, which is by 27.9 percent more than in March 2016.
Over 49,100 mobile devices were registered in the IMEI-code system in March 2016.
Some 184,599 mobile devices were registered in the IMEI-code system in January-March 2017, which is by 29.3 percent more than in January-March 2016.
The total number of IMEI-codes registered via e-government portal has exceeded 1.52 million after the system was launched.
The registration system became operational in Azerbaijan May 1, 2013. It is necessary to register mobile devices imported into the territory of the republic for private use (in the networks of the Azerbaijani mobile communication operators) within 30 days.
Registration of mobile devices is available through the Electronic government (e-gov.az) portal, as well as at Azerbaijan’s postal operator Azerpost LLC.
Registration is carried out within 24 hours from the moment of making an application. The registration of the IMEI code of a mobile device for personal use is 5 manat, for commercial sale - 1.6 manat.
Operating system market
Android is the most popular operating system in Azerbaijan. As of April 1, 2017, it ranks first with a 44.4 percent share on the operating system market, which is by 20.5 percent more than in the same period of 2016.
Android’s share increased by 3.7 percent on the Azerbaijani operating system market in January-March 2017.
A Microsoft Windows market share decreased by 2.4 percent in Azerbaijan in January-March 2017.
Microsoft ranks second on the operating system market with a 38.9 percent share.
A Windows share on the Azerbaijani operating system market reduced by 15.7 percent in January-March 2017 compared to the same period of 2016.
iOS with a 9.8 percent share ranked third. iOS market share decreased by 6 percent compared to the beginning of the year. iOS is followed by iOS x – 1.5 percent, Series 40 - 1.4 percent and other operating systems.
Internet
According to the Internet World Stats (IWS), 0.4 percent of the total volume of the Asian market accounted for Azerbaijan's Internet market.
The Internet penetration level in Azerbaijan as of March 31, 2017 is 75.5 percent.
The number of Internet users exceeds 7.531 million people.
Among the South Caucasian and Central Asian countries, Azerbaijan is ahead of Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan in Internet penetration among the population.
According to the IWS report, among the South Caucasian and Central Asian countries, Kazakhstan with over 13.2 million people ranks first on the number of users.
According to the report, 45.2 percent of all Internet users in the world account for Asian countries. In total, there are more than 1.87 billion Internet users throughout Asia.
Indices in the South Caucasian and Central Asian countries:
|
Country |
Internet users (March 31, 2017) |
The number of Internet users in relation to population (%) |
The number of Internet users in relation to the total index throughout Asia (%) |
|
Azerbaijan |
7 531 647 |
75,5 |
0,4 |
|
Kazakhstan |
13 236 444 |
73,3 |
0,7 |
|
Georgia |
2 411 370 |
60,7 |
0,1 |
|
Uzbekistan |
15 453 227 |
50,4 |
0,8 |
|
Kyrgyzstan |
2 076 220 |
33,9 |
0,1 |
|
Tajikistan |
1 622 924 |
18,3 |
0,1 |
|
Turkmenistan |
789 151 |
14,3 |
0 |
|
Total throughout Asia |
1 873 856 654 |
45,2 |
100 |
According to Azerbaijani primary provider Delta Telecom, the volume of incoming Internet traffic in Delta Telecom’s network increased by 5.5 percent and reached 190 gigabits in early April compared to early March.
The dynamics of the network load varies depending on the time of day and the maximum load is observed in the evening (22:00 - 00:00) - 190 gigabits. In the morning this index reduces up to 20 gigabits.
According to Delta Telecom, volume of outgoing traffic depending on the time of day ranges from 1 gigabit to 30 gigabits.
Delta Telecom’s traffic is divided among 25 telecommunications operators (state and private Internet service providers, mobile communication operators and others).
As of April 3, the largest volume of Internet traffic delivered to the end users accounted for BakinterNet with a 22.7 percent share. Aztelekom state Internet service provider ranked second with a 20 percent share, while AG Telecom with an 8.7 percent share ranked third.
The remaining 48.5 percent are distributed among such companies as Azintex, QlobalNet, Ultel, AlfaNet, AzNet, Caspel, MegaTelecom, Avirtel, Castel, Nakhchivan, Azercell, AzStarNet, Connect, Information and Computing Center (ICC) of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, Azerin, AZUninet, DATAPlus, Smart Systems, Azeronline, Bakcell, Eurocel and TransEuroCom.
Internet resources
As of January-March 2017, the number of Internet resources registered in the ‘.az’ domain zone decreased by 5.2 percent, WHOIS resource said.
As of early April, the total number of Internet resources registered in the ‘.az’ national domain exceeded 25,000.
Around 2,300 websites were registered in the ‘.az’ domain in January-March 2017, while the number of deleted websites reached around 3,700.
Some 23,200 websites of the total number of websites registered in the domain zone accounted for Internet resources registered in the first level.
The most popular second-level domain is ‘.com.az. Over 1,000 websites were registered in that domain. By popularity ‘.edu.az’ with 282 websites ranks third.
‘.az’ national zone officially appeared August 25, 1993. The registration of ‘.az’ domain costs 20 manat. The annual maintenance also costs 20 manat.
PC market
As of January-March 2017, the sale of notebooks and netbooks increased by 2 percent in Azerbaijan, the Global Stats statistical center said.
As of April 1, 2017, the market share of notebooks and netbooks reached 54.6 percent in Azerbaijan, which is by 17.1 percent more than in the same period of 2016.
A 1.7 percent decrease in desktop computer sales was observed in the country as of January-March 2017.
The market share of desktop computers in Azerbaijan reached 41.8 percent as of late March 2017, which is by 14.4 percent less than in the same period of 2016.
The market share of tablet computers in Azerbaijan ranked third and reached 3.6 percent.
The market share of tablet computers decreased by almost 7 percent in Azerbaijan as of January-March 2017 and by 22.1 percent less than in the same period of 2016.
e-signature
The Azerbaijani National Certification Services Center issued 2,316 e-signatures in January-March 2017.
According to the center, the number of e-signature users increased by 2.26 percent in January-March 2017 and reached 102,472 signatures as of April 1.
Over 67,400 e-signatures of the total number of issued e-signatures accounted for the state organizations, 17,500 e-signatures were issued to the legal entities and 17,300 to physical entities.
The total number of authentications and transactions carried out by using e-signatures exceeded 20.3 million.
Social networks
According to the Global Stats statistics center, the activity of Facebook users decreased by 14.8 percent in Azerbaijan in January-March 2017.
As of April 1, 2017, Facebook's share in the Azerbaijani social media market amounted to 75 percent, which is by 18.1 percent less than in the same period of 2016. By popularity Facebook ranks first in the Azerbaijani social media market.
Twitter with a market share of 7.8 percent ranks second. Twitter users’ activity increased by over twofold in January-March 2017.
By popularity Pinterest social network ranks third. Pinterest users’ activity increased by 2.5 times in January-March 2017. As of April 1, 2017, Pinterest’s market share was 3.5 percent, which is by twofold more than as of January 1, 2017.
V Kontakte social network with a market share of 1.42 percent ranks fourth, followed by Tumblr – 1.78 percent, Instagram – 1.75 percent, Linkedin – 1.23 percent and others.
e-commerce
The volume of electronic commerce (e-commerce) market in Azerbaijan amounted to 10.1 million manat in January-March 2017, said the country’s State Statistics Committee. Total volume of retail electronic commerce increased by 1.7 times in Azerbaijan in January-March 2017 as compared to January-March 2016.
In January-March 2017, total turnover of retail trade in Azerbaijan amounted to 7.9 billion manat, which is by 1.6 percent more than in January-March 2016.
In January-March 2017, 99.9 percent of consumer goods were sold by non-state business entities, while 11.1 percent - by enterprises which have legal entity statuses.