🛠️Developer ecosystem and market trends

Additionally, we have highlighted the sentiments, perceptions, and adoption of AI among Indian developers, shedding light on how AI tools may or may not impact their workflows and more.

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Developers around the world are growing FAST

Over the past five years, the global developer population grew by more than 20%, amounting to 27.7 million in 2023. Looking further out, in 2024 this number is going to reach 28.7 million people.

Stats from Github (source)

Geographic heatmap of developer populations around the world (source)

India will overtake the United States as the largest developer community on GitHub by 2027

Projections assume linear growth to forecast which developer communities will be the largest on GitHub by 2028. (source)

A decade ago, the majority of GitHub developers hailed from the United States, but since then, we've witnessed a significant shift with burgeoning developer communities emerging worldwide. Particularly noteworthy is India's 35%+ YoY growth, with 3.5 million new developers joining GitHub in 2023.

The abundance of high quality engineering talent due to the 900 million working-age population having affordable internet access and government initiatives such as the IndiaAI Mission has supported the growth of the Indian IT sector.

India's thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem, fueled by the availability of private capital from VC and private equity funding, is also closely tied to its high developer population, with access to talent being crucial for success.

In addition to these factors, India has a large and skilled workforce, particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, offering a competitive advantage for companies seeking to hire talent.

Indian Developer Population on Github (15% of total) (source)

Markets and Trends

The global developer platforms and data infrastructure products market is estimated to be at least $200 billion, growing at ~10% CAGR.

Notably, this is one of the highest growth sectors in India, increasing from $0.4 billion to $1.6 billion between 2020 and 2022.

Most developer products cater to users worldwide regardless of industry or location, and this inclusivity has been evident in the success of platforms like Postman, BrowserStack, Hasura, LambdaTest, Esper, Accel Data, MinIO, Atlan, Druva, and others. These platforms have embraced a global audience from the outset and continue to thrive internationally.

Surge in Spending Trends in DevOps and Infrastructure tools

Decision-makers were surveyed to gauge their plans regarding expenditure on key tools in the below-listed categories:

DevOps - Over 40% seek to boost investments, while approximately 25% consider spending cuts.

Infrastructure - Around 27% plan to invest more, with approximately 31% contemplating spending reductions.

Data and Sales - Over 51% prioritize higher investments, alongside approximately 12% considering spending cuts.

Cybersecurity - Approximately 61% plan to invest more, with no organizations considering reductions.

(Source)

AI adoption in Developers

70% of all respondents of Stackoverflow's annual survey are using or are planning to use AI tools in their development process this year. 77% of all respondents are favourable or very favourable of AI tools for development.

(source)

Open Source Activity

Open source activity on generative AI has seen an exponential increase. Indian Developers create the Second Highest Number of Generative AI Projects.

(source)

In a recent study by Keystone.AI and Harvard Business School professor Marco Iansiti, it was estimated that generative AI developer productivity benefits could boost global GDP by over $1.5 trillion USD by 2030 by helping to meet growing demand for software.

AI is driving a massive increase in developer activity, with the United States leading the way. However, there's a notable gap in the integration of AI into the workflows of professional Indian developers. This presents a promising opportunity for Indian startups to seize.

AI Integration in Development Workflows

Developers who're interested in using AI in their development workflows want to use it for Documenting and Testing code.

AI Integration in Development Workflow: Current Utilization (source)