The Ukrainian IT market shows steady growth from year to year. According to PwC analysis, the IT market has recently increased 3 times. During 2011-2015, it grew by 150%, and has already reached $ 5.7 billion in 2020. According to the latest statistics published by IT Outsourcing News, in 2020, 220 thousand Ukrainian programmers were involved in the world market. This is the highest indicator in Europe and fourth in terms of performance in the world. As of 2020, 82% of the Ukrainian IT workforce is concentrated in the top 5 biggest cities – Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnipro and Odessa. Kyiv has retained its leadership position since the inception of the IT sector in Ukraine and is rightfully considered the most attractive IT outsourcing place in Ukraine.
4 Reasons Why IT Outsourcing in Kyiv (Ukraine) is a Perfect Location for Global Companies
Ukrainian IT Market Overview
Kyiv was among the top 100 most technologically advanced cities in the world in 2019. This is stated in a study of the Smart City Observatory, the IMD World Competitiveness Center and Singapore University of Technology and Design. The rating takes into account the manufacturability of cities in the following categories: health and safety, mobility, entertainment, opportunities and management. Also, experts evaluated the availability of technology for urban residents. Below is the list of indicators that illustrate most relevantly the rapid growth of IT infrastructure in Kyiv.
Kyiv IT Market Overview
75000+ Specialists
One of the main goals that companies want to achieve looking for an IT outsourcing partner is to identify the best place for developing their business. Such an IT outsourcing place should combine flexible price policy, variety of talented professionals in the labor market and favorable business ecosystem.
Since Kyiv is the capital, there is a large variety of specialists coming there from all over Ukraine, and there are also great opportunities for the development and achievement of different business goals. There are 75,000 specialists, i.e. 40% of the population employed in the IT industry of Ukraine. And this number is constantly growing. There are more than 500 IT companies in Kyiv. About 20% of them are product companies, about 13% are hybrid (product + outsourcing) and 67% work using an outsourcing business model.
Kyiv is a city with rapidly growing IT and business potential. The Financial Times ranked Kyiv in the list of Top 10 cost-effective cities in 2020. The Kyiv Post reports that the local technology industry is vital to the Ukrainian economy. The Kyiv IT industry is beneficial, even in a pandemic, as most technical specialists quickly adapt to changes, for example, the transition of work from office to remote mode. According to ESOMAR and professional services firm BDO , industry development is showing positive momentum. The growth of the IT industry in Kyiv will be 28% in 2020.
According to experts in the IT sphere, the industry in Kyiv will continue to grow at a faster pace and attract more investment. It is interesting that 95% of IT outsourcing CEOs consider this city a good location for their business.
Back in 2015, the Kyiv City Council indicated that the IT industry, both in Kyiv and across Ukraine, had become one of the top priorities for development and investment. Over the next 5 years, the implementation of the strategy that is aimed at developing the IT sector in Kyiv, as well as at maintaining and ensuring its stable income, has been taking place.
12500+ IT Students In Kyiv
Kyiv is the best place in Ukraine for those who decide to unleash their potential and devote themselves to IT development. As of May 2020, about 12,500 students of various IT areas are enrolled, and in 2019, 5,200 students became graduates. In Kyiv, there are the best educational institutions of the country, 33 of which have a faculty of technology. Among them are Kyiv Polytechnic University, National Aviation University, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design and others.
Also, more than 50 research centers and academies periodically conduct seminars, lectures and meetings on the subject of modern technology and related topics.
In addition to that, there are many IT schools whose teachers are technical leaders of large world companies with offices in Kyiv. Doing such courses, anyone can learn the trending programming languages from Javascript to Objective-C or Swift. The best developers complete courses such as STEP Computer Academy, Main Academy, CyberBionic Systematics, IT Education Academy (ITEA), GoIT, QALight and others.
13,000+ tech fans attend IT events in Kyiv
Kyiv is one of the largest technological capitals in Europe. Each year, more than 100 technological events are held here - from small local meetings organized by Kyiv IT companies to world conferences that bring together more than 13,000 technology lovers.
Kyiv hosts the largest IT conference IForum. Last year, this event brought together 13,000 participants from Ukraine and other countries. The conference is highly eventful, although it takes only one day. At iForum there are 6 streams and a huge exhibition area, in which both startups who want to make themselves known and established companies are represented.
Another anticipated event is the Devoxx Ukraine (formerly JavaDay) conference. Devoxx is the biggest worldwide Java conference with access to hundreds of remarkable international speakers, sponsors, huge content databases and new speech formats. It is an annual international conference with more than 60 global speakers - well-known Java-professionals from the US, Canada, Western Europe and other countries. The extended Devoxx family welcomes annually more than 17,000 developers spread across Belgium, UK, France, Poland, Morocco and an additional 14 VoxxedDays cities around the globe. Moreover, Devoxx4Kids brings coding magic to 10,000 children through chapters all over the world.
Besides, there are many communities in the city that unite IT from various fields. In turn, they help those who wish to master the technology and dive deep into it by providing free educational programs in such areas as Front-end for junior, NodeJS for junior, Back-end for junior and others. One of the most famous communities is Kottans .
1500+ hotels and 50 international air routes.
Kyiv is a Ukrainian culture centre, with its numerous theaters, museums, religious sites, modern buildings and ancient monuments, visited by millions of foreigners annually (with the exception of spring and summer 2020). Kyiv Pechersk Lavra (1015), and St. Sophia Cathedral (1037) are World Heritage Sites. It has a well-developed infrastructure, a large number of hotels (currently more than 1,500), restaurants with various cuisines of the world and many shopping and entertainment centers.
In Kyiv, there are a large number of business centers, coworking and offices, where companies build cooperation with their partners. Kyiv will delight everyone with its temperate climate and favorable geographical location. Also, 2 large airports - Boryspil and Kyiv Airport - are connected with more than 50 different destinations around the world. The flight from London takes about 3.5 hours, and our friends from the USA can reach Kyiv in 8-10 hours.
Kyiv is a city of talented people. Kyiv is unconditionally a garden city. Kyiv is a multifaceted city. Kyiv does not tolerate bad food, unfriendly managers and unsmiling waiters. In Kyiv, everyone goes running, does sports and doesn’t watch TV. Kyiv is different every day.
We can conclude that Kyiv is one of the most attractive cities for IT partnerships not only in Ukraine, but throughout Europe. A good value for money will also please entrepreneurs who want to outsource software development.