The Global Shift to ICT Services
Written by Connor Blake ·
Edited by Sebastiaan Smits ·
Fact-checked by Mateus Rocha ·
Published September 14, 2026
Between 2013 and 2023, the share of world services exports made up of ICT services — software, IT consulting, data processing — rose from 9.1% to 14.48%. That is the market this site covers, measured directly: economies exporting more software and IT services relative to everything else they sell abroad.
The European Union moved fastest among the regions tracked here, from 10.58% in 2013 to 17.55% by 2023 — a larger swing than North America or East Asia & Pacific saw over the same period, and now the highest share of any region in this comparison.
ICT service exports as a share of total service exports, by region
| Region | 2013 | 2023 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Asia | 45.9% | 46.21% | +0.3 pts |
| European Union | 10.58% | 17.55% | +7.0 pts |
| World | 9.1% | 14.48% | +5.4 pts |
| East Asia & Pacific | 4.48% | 9.62% | +5.1 pts |
| North America | 5.57% | 8.54% | +3.0 pts |
| Latin America & Caribbean | 4.73% | 7.58% | +2.8 pts |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 5.72% | 6.08% | +0.4 pts |
What this means for a software buyer
A region's rising ICT-service export share does not by itself say which vendors are winning inside it, but it does say the underlying market for business software is growing relative to the rest of that region's economy. South Asia's share is the outlier in this table: already far higher than every other region by 2013, driven by a large, established IT-services export industry rather than a recent shift. Combined with our market data on which categories are searched for most, it is one input into which categories we prioritise ranking first.