Azerbaijan’s information and communication technology sector (ICT) is one of the most dynamically developing sectors of the national economy for its profitability and total profitability of this business.
The volume of information and communication services rendered to the population and organizations of the country increased by 13.7 percent in the first six months of 2016, as compared to the first half of 2015 and stood at 798.9 million manats, according to Azerbaijan’s State Statistical Committee.
As much as 81.5 percent of revenues to the sector account for non-government enterprises. Of the total volume of information and communication services, 72 percent accounted for the services rendered to the population. This is while 49.3 percent of the total volume of revenues accounted for mobile communication services.
Mobile communication market
The revenues from mobile communication services in Azerbaijan stood at 393.6 million manats in the first half of 2016, or 7.4 percent less than in January-June 2015 (425.4 million manats).
The number of IMEI codes of mobile phones registered through the E-government portal (e-gov.az) in Azerbaijan increased by 4.6 percent in June 2016, as compared to May and exceeded 971,900.
Around 50,000 mobile devices are registered in the system every month. The number of registered devices in the IMEI codes system through the portal increased by 42 percent in January-June 2016 and exceeded 287,800.
The registration system started to operate in Azerbaijan on May 1, 2013. The total number of devices registered in the database exceeds 15 million. Mobile devices can also be registered in the Azerpoct central postal office. The registration is carried out within 24 hours.
Mobile devices brought to the country for personal use (in networks of Azerbaijan’s mobile operators) should be registered within 30 days. These rules do not apply to roaming mobile phones of tourists and guests visiting Azerbaijan.
The cost of registration of the IMEI code of a mobile device for personal use is five manats, while it is 0.2 manats for commercial sale.
The share of Android operating system market in Azerbaijan has increased by 5.1 percent as of January-June 2016.
Android is the most popular operating system in Azerbaijan and it ranks first on the operating system market with 37.6-percent share as of July 1. The share of Android on Azerbaijan’s operating system market has increased by 11 percent as compared to the same period in 2015.
The share of Microsoft Windows 7 operating system market in Azerbaijan has decreased by 6.6 percent as of the first half of 2016.
Windows 7 is one of the most popular operating systems in Azerbaijan and ranks second on the operating system market with 29.4-percent share as of July 1, 2016. The share of Windows 7 on Azerbaijan’s operating system market has decreased by almost 18 percent.
iOS ranked third with 9.6-percent share. The share of iOS market has increased by 5.5 percent since early 2016.
This is while the share of Windows 10 is 4.4 percent, Windows 8.1 – 3.8 percent, Windows XP – 3.6 percent, Windows 8 – 2 percent and other operating systems.
Desktop market
The sale of portable computers in Azerbaijan has exceeded the sale of desktops, according to Global Stats statistical center.
The desktop sale in Azerbaijan has decreased by 3.5 percent as of January-June 2016. The share of stationary PC market in Azerbaijan stood at around 47.4 percent. The volume of desktop market in Azerbaijan has decreased by 9.5 percent during the reporting period, as compared to the same period in 2015.
The sale of portable computers (notebooks, netbooks) has increased by 5.1 percent in the country as of the first half of 2016. The share of portable computer market in Azerbaijan stood at 48.3 percent as of July 1, 2016. This market segment has grown by 13.1 percent as compared to the same period in 2015.
Tablets account for 4.9 percent of the market. The share of this market segment has decreased by 3.2 percent as of January-June 2016. This is while the share of tablets has increased by 14.3 percent as compared to the same period in 2015.
Internet resources
As many as 25,174 internet resources have been registered in the national domain zone .az. The number of websites registered in .az domain zone has increased by 2.5 percent as of the first half of 2016.
Around 23,481 of registered websites account for internet resources registered in the top-level domain, or 2.8 percent more than in early 2016.
The most popular second-level domain is .com.az where 998 websites were registered. (decrease by 3.4 percent).
The .edu.az domain ranks third with 266 websites.
The number of websites registered in .edu.az domain has increased by 8.5 percent as of the first half of 2016.
The .az national domain zone started to operate on Aug.25, 1993.
The cost of registration of .az domain is 20 manats and the annual cost of technical support is also 20 manats.
The number of Facebook users in Azerbaijan reached 1.8 million in June 2016, said the report published by Internet World Stats – IWS.
The number of Facebook users in Azerbaijan has increased by 20 percent as compared to the latest data of IWS published in November 2015.
The penetration rate of Facebook among Internet users in Azerbaijan is 18.2 percent, while the penetration rate of the Internet in the country is 61 percent (over six million users), according to the IWS.
Azerbaijan outstrips Georgia (2 million users) and Armenia (960,000 users) in CIS in terms of the number of Facebook users.
The data about the number of Facebook users in other CIS countries haven’t been updated yet. According to the IWS report for November 2015, the number of Facebook users in Kazakhstan is 1.2 million, Uzbekistan – 450,000, Kyrgyzstan – 280,000, Tajikistan - 110,000 and Turkmenistan – 11,000.