Each year, companies and consumers worldwide spend trillions of dollars on IT, including devices like PCs, tablets, mobile phones, printers, enterprise software, data center systems, and communications services.
And, while 2024 is on track to set a new record with global IT spending rising to over $5-trillion, the cumulative figures for the past decade are even more impressive.
According to data presented by Stocklytics.com, the world spent a whopping $42,5-trillion on information technology in the past decade. This is more than the GDP of the US and China combined, and 10-times larger than that of countries like Japan, Germany, India and the UK.
Over one-third of total IT spending in the past decade, or $15,7-trillion, went to communication services, the largest revenue stream in the IT market. IT services were the second-most expensive category in global IT budgets, with more than $11,5-trillion in total spending in the past decade.
Gartner data show companies and organisations spent $7,2-trillion on enterprise software in this period while another $5,2-trillion went on devices, including PCs, tablets, mobile phones, and printers. Data center systems costed roughly $2-trillion, far less than any other category.
Meanwhile, global IT spending is on track to hit a new record in 2024. Gartner expects the world to spend over $5-trillion on IS this year, the highest figure in the market`s history. This also represents an 8% increase compared to 2023 and the second-largest annual increase since 2021, when global IT spending jumped by 13,4%.
If the Garner forecast is correct, the cumulative IT spending since 2013 will climb to $47,2-trillion at the end of this year, almost twice the US GDP and nearly three times the GDP of China.