Revenues from international activities increased by more than 29% compared to 2018 and accounted for almost 15% of total revenue in 2019.
Noting the results DE-CIX said the general growth across more than 20 locations worldwide had “exceeded expectations”.
“Not only did we achieve a very good result in a highly competitive global market in 2019, but we are also looking forward to continuing this trend in our anniversary year 2020, when DE-CIX celebrates its 25th birthday,” said Harald A. Summa, CEO of DE-CIX.
“At the latest as a result of Covid-19, we have all now understood the importance of a secure and reliable global IT infrastructure. It gives people the chance to keep in virtual contact even during a global lockdown, and it enables learning and working from home. In this context, DE-CIX will continue in future to make a major contribution through its global ecosystem.”
On the 2002 outlook Summa continued: “We will strongly expand our cloud portfolio and interconnection services in order to further drive global digitisation.”
Over the course of the year, Frankfurt remained the largest market and broke its own world record. In September, the sound barrier of 7 Tbit/s in data throughput at peak times was broken, followed by a further record of 8.1 Tbit/s in mid-December.
By the end of the year, more than 950 networks were connected to the world’s largest internet exchange and connected customer bandwidth rose by 12.8% to over 41 Tb.
The locations in Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Munich recorded an aggregated customer growth of over 50% and close to 80% growth in connected customer bandwidth.
Both Hamburg and Munich enjoyed growth of more than 50% in connected networks, while Düsseldorf performed excellently with strong growth of over 80%. The total number of customers connected to DE-CIX locations in Germany in 2019 rose by almost 13% to well over 1,000.
The Southern European DE-CIX Internet Exchanges in Lisbon, Madrid, Marseille and Palermo experienced an overall increase in customer numbers of almost 35%, with the customer bandwidth increasing by 60%. Furthermore, DE-CIX Istanbul recorded growth of more than 55% in connected networks, while UAE-IX in Dubai increased connected customer bandwidth by more than 50% during the year.
The number of customers at Mumbai-IX in India increased by more than 40%. In addition, three new locations were opened in India in 2019: Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata.
With locations in Dallas and New York, DE-CIX achieved an increase of over 30% in North America in both the number of customers and the connected customer bandwidth. By the middle of the year, the business results of DE-CIX North America Inc. had already exceeded the break-even point, and the business year overall was brought to a positive conclusion.
“The strong global figures show that we have already established a long-term worldwide presence. We are among the top players not only in our home base of Frankfurt, but also in locations such as New York, Madrid, and Mumbai. DE-CIX has become a truly global brand, which we will extend to other regions around the globe in the coming years,” says Ivo Ivanov (pictured), CEO of DE-CIX International.
International expansion will continue with a focus on Southeast Asia after founding a joint venture last year. DE-CIX Malaysia will initially operate two locations, DE-CIX Kuala Lumpur and DE-CIX Johor Bahru and further locations in the region are being planned.
