Digital exports totaled $3.82 trillion in 2022, representing a nearly four-fold increase in value since 2005, according to a World Trade Organization (WTO) report.
How are digital exports defined? They are the international exchange and sale of digital products and services, including software, applications, multimedia content, online services, digital games and virtual products and digital assets.
Digitally delivered services have become an increasingly important component of trade and are likely to continue to grow.
Already, digital technologies have facilitated direct cross-border trade in certain services, such as consulting, education and financial services.
The ability to deliver services digitally played an important role in the resilience of trade during the Covid-19 pandemic.
While tourism and other services requiring cross-border mobility declined, exports of digitally delivered services, including IT consulting, continued to increase.
Driven by digital technological advances and changing business practices, the proportion of services trade that can be delivered remotely over computer networks is likely to continue to increase.
Exports of digitally delivered services are dominated by high-income economies and some emerging economies.
In 2022, high-income economies were responsible for more than 82% of global exports of digitally delivered services.
Among these economies, the European Union has the largest share with 37%, followed by the United States with 16% and the United Kingdom with 9%.
Meanwhile, 17% of digitally delivered services exports originated in middle-income economies, with China and India accounting for 6 and 5%, respectively.
Digital exports
Notably, regions such as Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean have a relatively limited market presence in digitally delivered services of 1 and 2 percent, respectively.
The participation of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) is particularly limited, accounting for just 0.2% of global exports of digitally delivered services, a market share that has been declining.
Lagging behind
Despite overall growth in the export of digitally delivered services, Africa and Latin America have continued to experience slower progress.
Between 2015 and 2022, digital exports grew faster in middle-income economies (10 percent on average per year) than in high-income economies (7 percent).