The WebRTC Market and Ecosystems

Feature Story

The WebRTC Market and Ecosystems

By Phil Edholm, President & Founder, PKE Consulting  |  June 17, 2014

WebRTC is a technology that will initiate a fundamental change in the communications market and in how all of us communicate.  WebRTC changes the paradigm of communications managed by two service providers interacting for their users (the PSTN) or having to join a club (Skype (News - Alert)) to communicate. With WebRTC, any website can be a communications “host” and the entire communications market is open to the same webification that has transformed the information market over the last 20 years.

How this will impact all of us in the communications industry and who will be impacted is a critical question. The figure on this page shows the four industry segments where WebRTC will have significant impact. Whether leveraged by an enterprise, service provider, or website, WebRTC changes the market. And it opens up a huge new set of blue ocean opportunities for new offers, just as the information web has created Google (News - Alert) and Facebook. 

For all of these markets, WebRTC changes the business, the value proposition, the customer interaction, potentially much of what we do today. And for all of them, the development team that needs to deliver the solution is critical to the success of the effort. WebRTC is a great technology, but combining the web; the network; and real-time video, audio, and information into a cohesive solution that creates value is a new challenge for everyone.

The WebRTC market appears to be huge.  Initial estimates are that the market in 2016 will contain 4 billion to more than 6 billion devices. With WebRTC being implemented in browsers and even in dedicated devices, this explosion is creating opportunities for tools, components, consulting, and other capabilities to be delivered to the WebRTC marketplace. While estimates vary about the rate of adoption, Skype has more than 300 billion minutes of video, and WebRTC will enable video to an even larger market. With 70 to 90 percent of all contact center transactions preceded by a website visit, the integration of WebRTC and real-time capabilities into the website could move 50 percent of 800 calling to WebRTC in the next 3 to 5 years.

Part of the WebRTC transformation involves the ecosystem of tool vendors, contractors, consultants, and service providers that are delivering WebRTC components. The WebRTC ecosystem is a rich environment with more 200 companies that provide media servers, SBCs, development platforms, cloud implementations, consulting, and other components and services. These organizations range from companies like Vidyo, which is bringing its video media servers to the UC market; to Plantronics, which has enabled its personal devices to integrate with WebRTC; to companies like TokBox (News - Alert), which has an advanced WebRTC platform. There are also companies like Priologic with a freemium model for basic capabilities and advanced services.  Service provider vendors like Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson (News - Alert), and Oracle are also supporting WebRTC in their portfolios. Creating and delivering a WebRTC solution or enabling your organization and employees to take advantage of WebRTC involves a number of components. For each of the segments above, having a clear view of how WebRTC will impact your business and be implemented and delivered is a clear requirement.  The WebRTC Conference and Expo is the global event where any of the segments of the WebRTC market can come to learn more about the technology, the business models, the tools, the components, and who are your implementation. For anyone in the communications, collaboration, or interaction markets, this is the best way to understand and evaluate the options and path forward.

Phil Edholm (News - Alert) is the president and founder of PKE Consulting LLC




Edited by Maurice Nagle

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