META (Middle East, Turkey, Africa)

History

2024: Growth in ICT spending by 4.5% to $238 billion

In 2024, the ICT market of the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META region) reached $238 billion. This is 4.5% more compared to 2023, when the total costs were estimated at $228 billion. Such data are provided in the IDC study, the results of which TAdviser reviewed in mid-February 2025.

It is estimated that spending on telecommunications services in the META market in 2024 amounted to about $133 billion, showing an increase of 5% on an annualized basis. Another $105 billion was provided by the IT sector, where growth was recorded at 3.9% compared to 2023. The region is rapidly developing the direction of artificial intelligence: the costs of relevant decisions jumped year-on-year by 32%, exceeding $3 billion.

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Фото: Freepik

In the market of the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, there is a clear interest in AI in general and in generative AI (GENI) in particular, while it is predicted that AI spending will reach $6.9 billion by 2027, says Jyoti Lalchandani, vice president of the group and managing director of IDC for the META region.

It is noted that the cost of public cloud in 2024 exceeded $13 billion, which corresponds to an increase of 21% on an annualized basis. In the cloud, about 59% of expenses were in the direction SaaS (software as a service). This is followed by services IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) with a share of 23% and (PaaS platform as a service) with 18%. The volume of the segment cyber security is estimated at more than $6.5 billion.

IDC analysts also note that the cost of digital transformation in the META region in 2024 amounted to over $59 billion. It is expected that in the future, the average annual growth rate in complex percentages (CAGR) in this area will be at the level of 15%, as a result of which by 2027 the digital transformation will account for $88 billion.^[1]

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