New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert), “European Web Conferencing Services Market,” finds that the total European Web conferencing services and software market reached revenues of $248 million in 2009, growing at a rate of 18.3 percent from the previous year. Frost & Sullivan estimates that the market is likely to grow over the next six years to reach $1.01 billion in 2015, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.4 percent.

"Currently, vendors are making progress in the integration of web conferencing with commonly used business applications and processes," said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Iwona Petruczynik. "Considerable effort is being put on open platforms and third-party applications such as widgets and mashups."

When companies use a Web conferencing hosted service provider, the application sits outside the corporate firewall but is on demand. Presently, many of the benefits of hosting, such as low up-front costs, higher reliability and the ability to free up internal support staff appeal to customers that are using web conferencing for a select few business applications.

"As the functional needs grow for web conferencing, customers are expected to move to on-premise software deployments," continued Petruczynik. "The true value of Web conferencing and other collaborative communications lies in their integration into a common platform where end users will relinquish the current way of using 'multiple tools for multiple processes' and use a unified communications product, of which conferencing and collaboration will be an essential element."

The U.K. Web conferencing services market is the most mature in the region and is currently beginning to experience intensifying pricing pressures caused by the changing pricing models and rising number of low-priced solutions. While the emerging markets in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) represent untapped potential and expansion possibilities, the region suffers from various infrastructural, social and political barriers.

The next few years pose numerous potential growth opportunities for larger economies in Western Europe to bring Web conferencing to a position of maturity.

"Global conferencing participants first introduce their new web conferencing solution in the major European countries where English is widely spoken, like the United Kingdom, Germany and the Nordic region, among others, and after achieving considerable success and adding on various other European language integrations, introduce the solution to other European countries," advises Petruczynik. "It is important for global vendors to understand the need for strong localisation of their products, especially the need to provide support in local languages, as English is not a language which the workforce uses proficiently."

European Web Conferencing Services Market is part of the Conferencing & Collaboration Growth Partnership Services program, which also includes research on the following markets: visual collaboration, enterprise communications and communication services. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.