NZ tech sector booming during covid

Otautahi - Sales of software and services by the information and communication tech sector reached $13.0 billion in 2021, up 39 percent from 2019, Stats NZ says.

The covid pandemic has seen more need for digital tools than ever before, so that both businesses and individuals can still connect and interact with each other.

The growth in the tech sector was driven by increased sales of software and services to New Zealand customers, at $10.8 billion which was an increase of 42 percent from 2019.

During the same period, exports of software and tech services increased by 27 percent to $2.2 billion.

Total sales of published software were $4.0 billion in 2021 – an increase of 52 percent from 2019.

The ICT sector also sells services such as information technology (IT) design, technical support, and hosting.

In 2021 compared with 2019:

• tech design, consulting, and development sales were $3.4 billion (up 35 percent)

• tech support sales were $3.1 billion (up 23 percent), hosting and infrastructure services were $2.5 billion (up 48 percent)

The increase in sales of published software and hosting services coincided with more people working from home since the pandemic began.

The overall value of tech services sales was $9.0 billion – an increase of 34 percent from 2019.

These figures are from the ICT supply survey 2021, which measures the commodity and type of sales from businesses associated with the tech industries every two years.

In 2021 compared with 2019:

• sales of tech software and services were worth $13.0 billion, up 39 percent

• sales of published software rose 52 percent to $4.0 billion

• sales of tech services increased 34 percent to $9.0 billion

• exports of tech software and services were 17 percent of the total sales of tech software and services, down from 19 percent.