How Fast Is Technology Growing – Can Moore’s Law Still Explain the Progress?

In the past decade, we’ve seen technology develop with overwhelming speed.

But how fast is technology advancing exactly?

Moore’s law was the first to shine a light on the technology growth rate. It says that the transistor count on integrated circuits doubles roughly every two years.

But technology is finally reaching its limits, and the growth rate has slowed down, making Moore’s law less plausible.

Still, the question remains as valid as ever. And we have the technology growth statistics to help us find the answer.

Here’s How Fast the Technology Is Growing (Telling Stats):

• By 2025, 38.6 billion smart devices will be collecting, analyzing, and sharing data.
• The web hosting services market is to reach $77.8 billion in 2025.
• 70% of all tech spending is expected to go to cloud solutions.
• There are 1.35 million tech startups.
• The Global AI market is expected to reach $89.8 billion.
• There are 4,383 million internet users.
• Solar energy adoption has grown by around 50%.

Isn’t it fascinating how fast technology is advancing?

If you found those statistics mind-blowing, just wait and see what else I’ve got prepared for you.

Growth in Integrated Circuit Chips

They make the computer world go round.

Moore’s law

• Supposedly, every 18 or so months, computer processing speed doubles. This is known as Moore’s law.(Source: Big Idea)
• The number of transistors that fit into a microprocessor reached over 10 billion in 2017. It was under 10,000 in 1971.(Source: Our World in Data)

The latter one in the list of tech growth stats just proves Moore’s law. Or at least it used to. In the past few years, that growth rate got slower. The technology already reached nanosize, and researchers are hard-pressed to find new creative ways to advance it. Additionally, the equipment for building nanosized technology is already anything but cheap.

The outtake is that Moore’s law will become outdated in the near future, as the current methods of developing new tech are starting to show diminishing returns.

Transistors

Technology is progressing more and more, and this is evident in the development of transistors – they are getting smaller and smaller.

• Currently, there are transistors that are 14 nanometers across being produced. That’s barely 14 times bigger than a DNA molecule. (Source: Quartz)
• Transistors nowadays are at an astonishing width of 70 silicon atoms. (Source: Quartz)
• The smallest functional transistor ever made is a 1-nanometer-gate transistor. (Source: Berkeley Lab News Center)

Data Volume Insists on Growing

Technology statistics show that tech market revenues will continue to grow. They are expected to reach astonishing numbers in the following years. The big data market is expected to reach $103 billion in revenue. The number of websites will go over 1.6 billion.

The web hosting services market is forecast to reach $77.8 billion in 2025. And, of course, we cannot not mention cloud platforms when talking about how fast technology is advancing.

The cloud is attracting more attention than ever, and it’s a prime factor in any technology adoption rate stats.

Big Data Growth

• Big data market revenues for software and services are forecast to reach $103 billion in 2027. (Source: Forbes)
• Their compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is expected to reach 10.48%. (Source: Forbes)
• Big data applications and analytics are forecast to grow to $19.4 billion in 2026. (Source: Forbes)
• The expected CAGR is 15.49%. (Source: Forbes)
• 90% of the world’s data has been generated in the last couple of years. (Source: Attunity)
• It is expected that by 2025, more than 38.6 billion smart devices worldwide will be collecting, analyzing, and sharing data. (Source: Statista)

Websites

• There are currently 1.6 billion websites. (Source: Internet Live Stats)
• 75% of websites nowadays are not active. (Source: Internet Live Stats)
• More than 50% of websites are hosted on either Apache or Nginx. (Source: Internet Live Stats)

Hosting

• GoDaddy’s market share in the US reached 19.49% in May 2019. (Source: HostAdvice)
• AWS comes second, with 3.26%. (Source: HostAdvice)
• FastComet is the highest-rated web hosting in the States as of May 2019. It performs very well in the Hosting Tribunal live metrics too. (Source: HostAdvice)
• The web hosting services market is expected to reach $77.8 billion in 2025. (Source: Market Research Report)
• The CARG is predicted to reach more than 15% between 2019 and 2025. (Source: Market Research Report)

APIs

• It was estimated there were approximately 15,000 APIs in 2016. (Source: Nordic APIs)
• Around 46% of organizations are planning to integrate cloud APIs for messenger and storage systems and databases. (Source: Apiumhub)
• In early 2017, the available public APIs were over 18,000. (Source: Deloitte)

Quantum Computing

• The quantum computing market will reach $495.3 million by 2023, with a CAGR of 29.04% until then. (Source: MarketsandMarkets)
• In 2024, quantum computing product sales and services globally are expected to reach $8.45 billion in 2024. (Source: Statista)

Cloud

• The global public cloud service market is forecast to reach a mind-blowing $206.2 billion in 2019. (Source: Forbes)
• By 2025, more than 80% of organizations are predicted to migrate toward the cloud, hosting, and colocation services. (Source: Computerworld UK)
• 84% of enterprises have adopted a multi-cloud strategy. (Source: Right Scale)
• Cloud-based IT spending is expected to reach 60% of all spending on IT infrastructure by 2020. (Source: Forbes)
• By 2020, cloud expenses are forecast to amount to 70% of all tech spending. (Source: Trend Micro)

If clouds are your field of interest, you can learn more about cloud adoption rates and the best-managed services.

Growth of Tech Startups

Considering technology adoption rates are as high as they are, it’s only natural that we’re witnessing the birth of more and more tech startups.

• There are 1.35 million tech startups. (Source: Get2Growth)
• There’s an increase in services and technology startups, with 20% or more startup activity. (Source: Global Entrepreneurship Research Association)
• Software companies had an average revenue of $103 million in 2018. This is a 55% increase since 2017. (Source: CrunchBase)
• In 2018, social media companies had an average revenue of $361 million. That’s 151% growth since prior to their IPOs. (Source: CrunchBase)
• Ecommerce companies had $221 million of revenue before going public, and they have had a consistent growth of 72% through the years. (Source: CrunchBase)
• Marketplace companies, on average, enjoy $105 million in yearly revenues – and from 50% to 55% growth YoY before their respective IPOs. (Source: CrunchBase)

Streaming Services Growth

Everybody nowadays is using at least one streaming service. If I had to guess, I’d say you’re either streaming music on Spotify or watching shows on Netflix. And to think that not long ago we had to buy cassettes and videotapes…

Just think about how fast technology is advancing!

Music Streaming

• The music industry’s paid streaming subscribers are expected to reach 235 million by the end of 2019. (Source: Forbes)
• The number is forecast to reach 350 million globally by 2022. (Source: Forbes)
• In 2019, Spotify has 96 million premium subscribers and 207 million monthly active users. (Source: Reuters)
• Apple Music has 28.8 million premium subscribers and 62.1 million monthly active listeners in 2019. (Source: Reuters)
• In 2017, Amazon Music had 16 million subscribers. (Source: Music Industry Blog)

Video Streaming

• The global video streaming market is expected to grow to $125 billion by 2025 with a 19.10% CAGR. (Source: MarketWatch)
• In 2018, Netflix reached 137 million subscribers. (Source: The Motley Fool)
• As of 2018, Amazon Prime video has 26 million viewers. (Source: The Motley Fool)
• Hulu had 20 million subscribers in 2018. (Source: The Motley Fool)
• In 2018, HBO GO had 142 million subscribers on a global scale. (Source: Bloomberg)
• In 2018, viewers worldwide spent over $2.2 billion on the top 5 video streaming services. (Source: Comparitech)

Big Technology Drivers That Keep Changing the Way We Live

Those high technology adoption rates are why technology is steadily becoming a vital part of our daily lives. The internet, voice assistants, and self-driving cars are no longer a sci-fi dream – they are our reality.

Here are some technology growth stats to prove my point.

Internet

• As of March 2019, there are 4,383 million internet users, which account for 56.8% of the world’s population. (Source: Internet World Stats)
• There are 3.9 billion active mobile internet users as of January 2019. (Source: We Are Social)
• Internet users worldwide tend to spend 6 hours and 42 minutes online daily. (Source: We Are Social)

AI

• The global AI market is expected to reach $89.8 billion by 2025. (Source: Aumcore)
• By 2021, AI augmentation is forecast to bring in $2.9 trillion in business value and to free up 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity. (Source: Aumcore)
• In 2018, 47% of digitally established organizations had a mobile AI strategy. (Source: CMO)
• Global spending on AI is predicted to grow by up to $7.3 billion yearly until 2022. (Source: Towards Data Science)
• In 2018, the number of active AI startups has increased 14x since 2000. (Source: Forbes)

Self-driving Cars

• 16% of people feel comfortable riding in a self-driving car. (Source: Driverless Media)
• 33% believe that some of the features of self-driving cars, such as self-driving autopilot, lane departure sensors, and automated park assist, would make their driving safer. (Source: Driverless Media)
• $80 billion have been invested in autonomous vehicle technology over the past three years. (Source: Driverless Media)
• By 2035, around 3 million self-driving vehicles are expected to be sold in Western Europe. (Source: Statista)

Voice Interface

• Almost 40 million Americans own a smart speaker. (Source: Brafton)
• 71% of owners of smart speakers use their voice assistants at least once daily. (Source: Clearbridge)
• 44% use them multiple times a day. (Source: Clearbridge)
• 76% increased their usage of voice assistants in 2018. (Source: Clearbridge)
• By 2022, voice-based ad revenue is expected to reach around $19 billion. (Source: Clearbridge)
• By 2020, half of all searches are expected to be voice searches. (Source: WordStream)

Internet of Things Growth

• IoT Revenue is expected to reach $3 trillion by 2025. (Source: Aria Systems)
• Worldwide technology spending on the internet of things is forecast to attain a CAGR of 13.6% by 2022. (Source: IDC)
• Cellular IoT connections will reach $3.5 billion in 2023, with a CAGR of 30%. (Source: Forbes)
• In 2019, the adoption of IoT devices and services is expected to reach an inflection point of 18% to 20%. (Source: Forbes)
• In 2021, the combined markets of the internet of things will have reached $520 billion. (Source: Forbes)

Challenges

Technology stats and facts showed us mind-boggling growth rates.

But high speed doesn’t equal smooth sailing.

There are a lot of challenges to be faced.

Cyber Security

• Just in January, 1,769,185,063 user records got leaked. (Source: TheBestVPN)
• A report from 2018 claimed Microsoft Office formats were the most used by email hackers. (Source: TheBestVPN)
• The reason behind 48% of data breaches lies in a malicious or criminal attack. (Source: TheBestVPN)
• 64% of stolen data records took place in the United States. (Source: Varonis)
• 56 records get compromised every second. (Source: Varonis)
• There are 6 billion stolen records in the US. (Source: Varonis)

If you’re afraid of data breaches, make sure to secure your data.

GDPR

• 41,502 data breach notifications were received from EU businesses or organizations, pursuant to Article 33 of the GDPR, between 25 May 2018 and 28 January 2019. (Source: GDPR today)
• Google was fined €50 million by the French authorities for violating GDPR. (Source: GDPR today)
• In 2018, 56% of organizations forecast an increase in their data governance budget to deal with GDPR challenges. (Source: CMO)

Future Predictions

Just a few years ago, we could hardly imagine the speed at which technology would develop. Does the future hold even more fascinating things for us?

Here are some facts and predictions about the progress of technology.

Solar Power

• By 2040, renewable energy is expected to grow by 400%. (Source: ClimateAction)
• The target goal is for renewable energy to make up 20% of US energy consumption. (Source: Eurostat)
• In 2018, in the US, a new solar project was being installed every 100 seconds. (Source: SEIA)
• Solar energy adoption has grown by around 50% in the last decade. (Source: SEIA)

Genetic Engineering

• There are more than 3,000 genetic disorders, and genetic engineering could potentially provide a cure for them. (Source: Encyclopedia)
• Genetically modified crops worldwide amounted to 185.1 million hectares as of 2016. (Source: Statista)
• 92% of the corn in the U.S. is genetically engineered. (Source: Center for Food Safety)
• 94% of the cotton and soybeans raised in the US are genetically engineered. (Source: Center for Food Safety)

Nanotech

• A new class of single-atom nanozymes was discovered – it had catalytic activity 70 times higher than Pt/C catalysts. (Source: StatNano)
• In 2018, there were 367 nanotech events held in Europe, 165 in Asia, and 138 in America. (Source: StatNano)

I started writing this article with one burning question in mind.

“How fast is technology advancing?”

The truth is – development speed has slowed down, and Moore’s law is no longer valid.

Nevertheless, human ingenuity keeps finding new ways for technology to evolve.

The growth of the latter shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.