The COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis: Impact on ICT Spending

The paper presents a study of digital transformation at the global level, comparing the evolution of ICT spending and economic indicators, i.e., GDP per capita, employment, and labor productivity. The study aims to compare the two most recent global crises, the 2008-2009 economic crisis and the COVID-19 (2020-) pandemic crisis, while also predicting developments after the pandemic recession. The research results show that during the pandemic crisis, ICT spending declined more severely than during the previous economic downturn, although new ICTs showed more visible resilience to crisis impacts. The pandemic crisis also changed shares of traditional and new ICTs and led to four different deviations from classical diffusion, and as a result, new ICTs are expected to increase their share over all other main ICT segments by 2027.