The “Armenian internet” is rapidly moving from the web format to mobile applications.

For 5 years, the ArmNet Awards has been taking stock of the trends of the year.

“The websites nominated for the ArmNet competition directly reflect IT development trends. Under the terms of participation, the websites that apply must have been created or updated in the last year. Of the 143 projects that applied, the majority are mobile apps,” says one of the ArmNet organizers, Maeutica Branding Agency CEO and founder Haykuhi Taksildaryan. 

Jury chair Samvel Martirosyan likewise notices an increase in the number of mobile apps. According to him, one of the trends is that Armenia is no longer the sole target of recently created projects. 

“The projects have become internationalized: there are many programs that aren’t just for local consumers. In 2010–2011 (considered the start of the Armenian internet), all the projects were created for the domestic market. Now the start-ups have begun to think globally. This is apparent with the example of Shadomatic. We’ve begun to view the internet more globally,” says Martirosyan.  

Winner of three ArmNet Awards (design and usability, innovation, and the Grand Prix in mobile apps) Shadowmatic mobile game programmer and Triada Studio Technical Director Bagrat Dabaghyan says his firm intends to enter the global market. 

“We want to enter the market more globally. Our dream is to create high-quality, more global-scale games — for Playstation and computers. It might seem like the distant future, but that’s our goal,” he says. 

Trends have changed also in the media sector. According to winner of the ArmNet Award for Content and the Grand Prix in websites Mediamax Director Ara Tadevosyan, the news media has undergone a transformation. 

“There are now many ways to get the news. If you’re interested solely in what happened, journalism perhaps is no longer necessary. You can get your news from social networking sites. But if you want to go deep, to understand why something is happening, what’s behind it, and what might be the consequences, journalism comes to help, and also to educate and orient yourself better in this torrent in which we all live,” he says.  

Tadevosyan believes that the ArmNet Award proves that people need quality journalism. 

Anna Barseghyan