By Angelica Oung
Staff reporter
Revenue in the computer and information technology (IT) services sector rose 11 percent year-on-year to NT$105.7 billion (US$3.8 billion) in the second quarter of this year, the highest second-quarter figure on record, on the back of work-from-home demand, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Tuesday.
Photo: Lai Hsiao-tung, Taipei Times
The increase was mostly driven by strong sales in the computer programming industry, which jumped 9.7 percent annually to a record NT$78.9 billion, as remote work arrangements required firms to deploy network storage servers and boosted demand for information security and network architecture products, the ministry said in a report.
Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) said that work-from-home needs extended beyond demand from employees upgrading office equipment.
“Businesses seeking to accommodate work-from-home needs had to widely upgrade their corporate IT equipment such as servers and data protection,” Huang said. “Software and hardware demands for network architecture grew, leading to growth in the computer programming industry.”
The IT services industry’s sales rose 14.7 percent to NT$26.8 billion, also a record increase, as Web design and management fees increased, and digital advertisement sales soared, the report said.
In the first half of the year, the computer and IT services sector posted record combined revenue of NT$209.2 billion, up 12.4 percent year-on-year, the ministry said.
The computer programming industry’s revenue rose 11.3 percent from a year earlier to NT$157.1 billion, while the IT services industry increased by 15.8 percent to NT$52.1 billion, it said.
However, the technical support and professional services sector’s revenue declined 1.1 percent from a year earlier to NT$74.1 billion, the ministry said.
The sector’s performance was affected by sales declines of 11.9 in the photography industry, and 7.2 percent in the advertising and market research industry, which posted revenues of NT$1.7 billion and NT$34.4 billion respectively.
Within the sector, revenue in the professional design industry rose 6.2 percent to NT$17.2 billion, as demand for interior, exhibition and industrial design expanded, while revenue in the management and consulting industry increased 5.4 percent to NT$20.8 billion, also a record, attributable to growing business for consulting across domains such as corporate finance, human resources management and energy consumption, the ministry said.
Overall, the technical support and professional services sector reported first-half revenue edging up 0.4 percent to NT$144.6 billion, the ministry added.
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