IDC forecasts APeJ ICT spending in 2021

Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) information and communications technology (ICT) spending, including new technologies, will reach US$1.5 trillion in 2021, according to the latest IDC Worldwide Black Book: 3rd Platform Edition.

Source: IDC. Top growth markets in APeJ based on CAGR from 2016 to 2021.

“Innovation accelerators, including Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, robots and drones, augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) headsets, and 3D printers, will account for almost 40% of the total ICT spending by 2021, estimated at around US$619.1 billion,” said Ashutosh Bisht, Research Manager for Customer Insights and Analysis, IDC Asia Pacific.

IDC also estimates that innovation accelerators such as 3D printing, AR/VR, cognitive AI, IoT, robotics, and security will grow at a 16.6% CAGR over the forecast period of 2016-2021, or at a faster pace than four pillar technologies like big data and analytics, cloud, mobility, and social, which is projected to grow at 5.2% CAGR. In terms of contribution to total ICT spending, the share of the four pillars to the overall APeJ market will decline from 49.7% in 2017 to 43.9% in 2021.

China accounts for 60.7% of the overall 3rd platform ICT spending in 2018, followed by ASEAN countries with 11.5.% share. Meanwhile, India will observe double-digit growth rate with CAGR of 11.1% for the five-year forecast period, followed by the rest of Asia Pacific (developing)* with a CAGR of 9.7%.

*IDC defines rest of Asia Pacific (ROAP developed) as Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan; while ROAP (developing) covers Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Macau, etc.