Peering market at a glance#

Flavio Luciani (with John Souter), NAMEX

• Why: An evidence-based counter to the "peering is dying" narrative, useful for interconnect strategy and for anticipating where IXP/edge investment flows next.
• What: A synthesis of a multi-region paper (published on RIPE Labs, APNIC, LACNIC, ARIN blogs): peering is structurally transforming, not declining. The misread comes from mature-hub stabilization, lost visibility as traffic moves to PNIs/in-network caching/edge, and hyperscaler selective interconnection (CAIDA port-capacity trends for Meta/Microsoft/Apple/AWS shown). Growth is strongest in emerging markets (Kenya, Nigeria, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Colombia, Peru). IXP success factors: telecom liberalization, local content and eyeballs, population scale, carrier-neutral DC ecosystems. Forward look: IXPs as strategic infrastructure for resilience and sovereignty, micro-IXPs, and edge/low-latency architectures.
• How: CAIDA snapshots, PeeringDB, and IXPDB data compared across regions.
• Where applicable: Strategy level — relevant to interconnection planning generally; country specifics vary and the slides are a condensed version of a longer paper worth reading for depth.