Information Security and Mobile Applications Will Set Development Trend for the Russian IT Market
Software development is the current priority for Russian IT companies. If in 2010 only 36% of market players were engaged in this area, in 2017 their share grew to 61% - as was discovered by the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge Centre for Business Tendencies Studies (CBTS) through a survey of more than 600 companies active in the IT industry.
Managers of 53% of these firms believed the current business climate was favourable for stepping up activities in this area. Among the main barriers hindering their business they named the following:
Low effective demand (66%);
Insufficient support of domestic software developers by the government (45%);
Lack of potential customers (41%) and their insufficient awareness of the products’ potential (30%);
Competition by foreign companies (29%).
The majority of the respondents believed that promising business areas for the next few years were mobile applications (59%), information security (54%), and cloud computing (49%).
“Neural networks, artificial intelligence, and machine learning may soon become major trends in Russia too”, noted CBTS experts.
Also, more than a quarter of the respondents believed the future of the IT market was linked with development of Big Data and relevant analytics, and 25% — with designing Russian analogues of foreign B2G and B2B applications. Internet of Things, blockchain solutions, driverless cars and drones platforms were generally seen to come to the forefront in a more distant future.