Information Technology is a major industrial sector in Austria. With a market volume of about € 25.8 bn. (including exports and foreign earnings) in 2002 this industry has become as big as tourism. Whereas double digit growth rates dominated in 2000 and 2001, the domestic market (€ 20 bn) lost 0.9% in 2002. Exports saved the statistics by growing more than 5% and reached € 5.8 bn. Main export markets are Central and Eastern Europe with a share of 56.6%. Former export market no. 1, the EU-15, only reached 28.8% (26.5% in 2001). The high CEE export share is due to the fact that 50% of the CEE exports come from the numerous Vienna based CEE headquarters of multinational IT companies. In fact, their activities altogether control roughly 20% of the whole CEE IT market (About € 10 bn. of CEE's overall market volume of € 50 bn.).

Austria is a comparatively small market with about 3.6% of Europe’s overall ICT market volume of € 550 bn. The specialty of the market is rather that due to its high standards (90% mobile phone penetration, top rank in WiFi density, top rank in Europe’s e-Government benchmarking etc.) it is one of Europe’s best test markets in relation to its size. Many major ICT companies profit from this quality. In terms of e-readiness, Austria shows a medium ranking with improving tendency.
In terms of technology Austria’s assets lie in specialisation and niche products. Among the IT sector’s 28,000 small and medium sized enterprises are about 50 market and/or technology leaders. Some enterprises show export rates of up to 100%. Austria reaches high standards in IT for medical applications, industrial IT, especially in areas like simulation and optimisation, and semiconductors.