The amount of products exported from Serbia in the information and communications industry far exceeds the amount of exported goods of agricultural, automotive, and machine industries. “Serbia exported more games than frozen raspberries last year” – we have all heard it already numerous times, but what are the exact numbers and what are products exported?
IT&Economy: Numbers
Let’s talk numbers first:
● In 2018 the export exceeded €1bn.
● In 2019 it reached €1.4bn, an increase of 55% compared to 2017.
● Serbia exports 0.3% of all IT products exported globally.
● There are more than 2,500 active software companies in the Republic of Serbia. [1]
The Economist [2] reports that:The tech industry accounts for at least 6% of Serbia’s GDP,
● The tech industry accounts for at least 6% of Serbia’s GDP,
● employs some 45,000 people (not counting an estimated 10,000 freelances that work alone),
● and that foreign firms have spent more than $500m on Serbian startups in the past six years.
IT&Economy: Products
When it comes to product Serbia’s information and communications industry has to offer, we are speaking predominantly about software development. According to the Digital Serbia Initiative research that was conducted among a hundred local companies, the most deal with enterprise solutions, websites, AI-based products, big data analysis, and smart city solutions. [3]
IT goods sold off to the international market cover different things, from various mobile apps of great quality to cloud infrastructures. Amazing work has been done in the domain of using blockchain technologies. Blockchain can be especially useful in cases of global pandemic (like COVID-19 that has struck us) when it comes to fast and efficient data sharing and verifying information. Also, combined with AI it can help to determine the likelihood of an infected person spreading the disease to someone else. [4]
Since we are on the topic of AI, software products developed in Belgrade are used by Microsoft in Cortana and Office. AI work goes beyond just Microsoft, with engineers creating programs for autonomous driving and other AI-based products. Even the deep learning startups snatched some significant funding lately and are doing amazing work selling products to international companies.
Probably the most known and fun part of IT products exported from Serbia covers gaming products. For example, the largest game developed in Serbia has 19 million registered users. [5] Speaking of digital entertainment, ProudSourceIT had the opportunity to work on the in-game currency for the gaming industry.
The focus started to shift to fintech and biotech in the last couple of years as well. The services provided include the development of brain-to-computer interface products and autonomous perimeter security systems.
So, we can see that Serbian engineers are producing software used in various industries, from agriculture to medicine, using the trendiest technologies. Having such talented and hardworking engineers and tech-teams, it is no surprise that Serbia is one of the most in-demand outsourcing destinations in Europe.
References
[1] https://bif.rs/2019/12/perspektive-it-industrije-zaokret-ce-se-desiti-pre-ili-kasnije/
[2] https://www.economist.com/europe/2020/02/27/an-unexpected-tech-boom-in-serbia
[3] https://teslanation.org/the-serbian-tech-scene/
[4] We wrote more about it here.