If you think you’ve been seeing and reading more and more about VoIP and its dominance in technology, you’re not mistaken: it’s exploding everywhere.
A study just released by Transparency Market Research (TMR) shows the global VoIP services market was valued at $70.9 billion just two years ago, and is now forecast to reach $136.76 billion by 2020. That’s a compound annual growth rate of 9.7 percent over the next five years.
“Europe was the largest revenue contributor to the global VoIP services market in 2013,” the report notes, “[but] the Asia Pacific region is expected to be the fastest growing market for VoIP services during the forecast period.”
VoIP services are growing in popularity as they’re cheaper and affordable for both corporate use and for individual consumers. VoIP also enables corporations to save on operational costs normally incurred by using traditional telephony services. “The corporate consumers segment is further classified on the basis of the type of services offered to these consumers,” the report says. “In 2013, the major contribution in terms of revenue was from the hosted business services offered by the VoIP service providers.”
But while growth is strong, there are some obstacles that still must be overcome.
“In spite of promising growth signs, VoIP service providers face challenges due to the lack of infrastructure and limitations of bandwidth allocation in emerging countries, which are crucial for long term growth,” the study cautions.
Still, there is plenty to be optimistic about as the industry finds its footing.
“The computer-to-phone VoIP services segment was the largest, and accounted for 37.9 percent of the total subscriber base in 2013,” TMR reports. “However, the phone-to-phone (Mobile VoIP) configuration is expected to witness healthy revenue growth during the forecast period, recording a CAGR of 14.7 percent from 2014-2020. Moreover, due to increasing smart phone penetration and demand for mobility among the corporate and individual consumers, the market for computer-to-computer VoIP services is expected to show minimum growth, wherein computers (desktops) are gradually being replaced by smart phones and other portable devices.”