Runet's economy reaches 16.4 trln rubles, IT industry's share in Russia's GDP exceeds 2% last year - Deputy PM Chernyshenko

MOSCOW. April 8 (Interfax) - The Russian Internet segment's economy has risen 3.5 times to 16.4 trillion rubles since 2019, while the share of the IT industry, which is the fastest growing in the country, in GDP reached over 2% last year, and more than 50% of Russians use Internet services on a daily basis, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said.

"Since 2019, the Runet economy has increased 3.5 times to 16.4 trillion rubles, which is a gigantic amount. And all of this is thanks to the Internet. As many as 84% of our citizens spend more than three hours a day on the Internet, the use of Internet services has become a part of everyday life for about half of our people, and digital services are becoming more and more accessible, convenient for our citizens," Chernyshenko said during the Runet Day at the Russia exhibition at the All-Russian Exhibition Center (VDNKh) on Sunday.

On April 7, Russia's national domain .ru celebrates its 30th anniversary. The date is officially considered Runet's birthday.

Chernyshenko noted that while in 1998 there were only one million Internet users in Russia, Russia currently ranks first in Europe in terms of their number, "This is almost 85% of our country's residents, or 103 million Internet users who are aged over 12."

"Online shopping or obtaining public services virtually in one click is already a common reality," he said. For instance, in 2023, 340 million services were provided on the Gosuslugi public services website, and the daily audience of users amounted to 11 million people.

"On the whole, we see that the IT industry is developing at an accelerated pace, it is the fastest growing economy in the country. For instance, the IT industry's share in the total GDP has already exceeded 2% by the end of 2023," Chernyshenko said.

In accordance with a presentation shown by Chernyshenko, in 2023, the digital content market in Runet soared 28%, or up to 119.7 billion rubles, and 53% of Russians use Internet services every day.

Russia "is among the three top countries in terms of the number of websites registered in the .ru domain zone, surpassing such countries as France, Italy and even China (without taking into account common domains such as .org, .net or .com)," Chernyshenko added.