Growing SMB adoption rates point to compound annual growth inthe web-conferencing market of over 25% during the next five years, accordingto new research from Frost & Sullivan, which says sales will reach $657.1mby 2014.
Analysts pointed to several key influences on the market –not least the recessionary impact on capex – that are gaining traction,including enterprise-level interest in messaging and social networks.
“The global recession and stringent environmental lawsintroduced by the European Parliament in 2008 are driving organisations toreduce their travel expenses and comply with green policies,” said researchanalyst Iwona Petruczynik. “Web conferencing services certainly help inachieving these objectives.”
Hosted conferencing services are leading the charge, growingat 14.9% from 2007 to 2008, due to growing awareness of the technology’spotential among SMBs that were previously unwilling to invest in on-premisekit.
Frost & Sullivan said that with new, integrated solutionsentering the marketplace, and prices being driven down by global webconferencing services vendors such as Cisco and Microsoft, more end-users feltjustified in evaluating the technology.
“Local independent providers are responding [to Cisco] byoffering more competitively priced services which, in turn, will impel thelarger vendors to lower prices,” Petruczynik added.
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