Apr 13, 2021
Worldwide IT and business services revenue declined 1,16% year over year (in constant currency) in 2020, according to the IDC Worldwide Semiannual Services Tracker.
In nominal dollar denominated revenue based on today’s exchange rate, the decline was 1,53%, due to FX. Despite bearing the full brunt of the pandemic, services revenue managed to stay above $1-trillion last year and the overall contraction in 2020 proved to be milder than forecast in September 2020.
IDC now expects the services market to have a strong rebound in 2021. The current forecast projects year-over-year growth in both 2021 and 2022 to be around 4%. This is a notable improvement over the September 2020 forecast, which projected the market to grow close to 2% in 2021 and 3,2% in 2022. The improved outlook is buoyed by better-than-expected revenue in 2020, especially in Q3 and Q4, a brighter economic outlook and growing business confidence, and the pandemic’s long-lasting impact on IT and business services spending – the new normal.