Belgrade IT sector

The IT sector of Belgrade is the concentration of information technology centers and service providers in the Serbian Capital of Belgrade. With 6,924 companies in the IT sector (2013 data), Belgrade is one of the most important information technology centers in Southeast Europe, with strong growth.[1]

Many global companies have decided to outsource their IT requirements into Serbia as a result of the highly educated populace yet significantly lower wages (compared to western Europe or the U.S.A.).

Microsoft Development Center located in Belgrade was at the time of its establishment fifth such center in the world.[2] Many other global IT companies choose Belgrade for their regional or European center such as Asus,[3] Intel,[4] Dell,[5] Huawei, NCR[6] etc. What brought companies like Microsoft in the first place was a large pool of talented engineers and mathematicians in a lower wage country and these major investments had in 2015 generated over €678.3 million in Serbia's exports.[7]

Nordeus, a local video game startup, is one of Europe's fastest growing gaming companies.[8] In just five years of operation, Nordeus has grown to over 150 employees and €64 million of yearly sales.[9] In just the first quarter of 2016, more than US$65 million has been raised by Serbian startups including US$45 million for Seven Bridges (a Bioinformatics firm) and US$14 million for Vast (a data analysis firm).[10][11] Also in 2016, a Belgrade-based website AskGamblers which is generating over €810,000 in revenue and €620,000 in profits was sold to Catena Media for €15 million, all 30 employees will continue to work as normal.[12]

The startup community is helped by a non profit organization called Startit which is an active community that acts as an incubator for new companies. Startit raised US$108,000 from its Kickstarter campaign in 2015, allowing it to expand its Belgrade center and build a second center in Inđija which was completed February 2016.[13] Other exiting developments include an Agriculture Drone startup that uses drones for land surveying, TeleSkin an app which can identify and track skin cancer and there was another successful Kickstarter for Hexiwear a customizable smartwatch for developers.[14] Progress in Serbian IT over the last six years has been tremendous with the fast growth only increasing as Serbia's many talented engineers, scientists and mathematicians break into this new industry where gross salaries average €2,000 per month (far more than the €600 national average).[7]

The IT sector in Serbia is well on its way to becoming the largest sector of the Serbian economy.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "U Beogradu radi 120.000 firmi". Večernje Novosti. 23 April 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
  2. ↑ "Microsoft Development Center Serbia". Microsoft.com. 1 April 2011. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
  3. ↑ "Asus otvorio regionalni centar u Beogradu". Emportal.rs. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
  4. ↑ "Centar kompanije 'Intel' za Balkan u Beogradu – Srbija deo 'Intel World Ahead Program'". E kapija. Retrieved 7 July 2009.
  5. ↑ Beograd, Ana Vlahović, (25 September 2011). "Srbija centar IT industrije". Pressonline.rs. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  6. ↑ NCR planira da udvostruči broj zaposlenih u Srbiji u 2014 (in Serbian), eKapija, 24 July 2013, retrieved 4 November 2013
  7. 1 2
  8. ↑ "Srpski Zakerberg: Branko je napustio "Majkrosft" i u Srbiji napravio firmu koja je partner "Fejsbuka"". Blic.rs.
  9. ↑ "Подаци о обвезнику". fi.apr.gov.rs.
  10. ↑
  11. ↑
  12. ↑
  13. ↑
  14. ↑
  15. ↑ "IT sektor, perspektiva srpske privrede - Serbia.com". 2016-03-29. Retrieved 2016-09-26.
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