IT industry in Russia - statistics & facts
The Russian information technology sector has been developing despite facing challenges like the exodus of Western companies and emigration of IT professionals. The industry has seen a continuous increase in fixed capital investment, which exceeded one trillion Russian rubles in 2022. However, the share of the spending on digital economy in the country's gross domestic product (GDP) saw a decline in that year. As a result of the Western sanctions, the Russian IT market shrank by nearly 15 percent in 2022 and remained below the 2021 figure in 2023.
The Western countries' ban on high-tech goods to Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has limited Russia's access to imports of semiconductors and other hardware and created an even higher demand for domestic hardware and software. Moreover, several international vendors either suspended new sales (such as Microsoft) or completely withdrew from Russia (such as TeamViewer), pushing corporate and private consumers to search for domestic alternatives. Thus, some Russian IT companies and specialists relocated abroad to continue doing business with their international clients.
Major IT companies in Russia
The radioelectronics unit of Rostec, a Russian state corporation, has emerged as the undisputed leader by revenue in the IT industry, having nearly 425 billion Russian rubles in 2023. Besides defense manufacturing, Rostec operates in the high-tech sector, producing electronic devices and software. MTS Digital had the highest revenue among IT services companies in the country, at around 88 billion Russian rubles, while the software segment was dominated by the T1 Group , which earned nearly 84 billion Russian rubles from software salesin the same year.Import substitution in the Russian IT industry
Over the past decade, the Russian government has encouraged import substitution in the IT industry by providing subsidies to companies that developed solutions to replace foreign products. The revenue of Russian software companies from sales within the country steadily increased from 3.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2015 to 17.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, and it was expected to continue growing in the following year.The Western countries' ban on high-tech goods to Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has limited Russia's access to imports of semiconductors and other hardware and created an even higher demand for domestic hardware and software. Moreover, several international vendors either suspended new sales (such as Microsoft) or completely withdrew from Russia (such as TeamViewer), pushing corporate and private consumers to search for domestic alternatives. Thus, some Russian IT companies and specialists relocated abroad to continue doing business with their international clients.
