Conferencing Grows in Asia Pacific Region Despite Economic Downturn: Report

Businesses in the Asia Pacific region are increasingly leveraging conferencing services as an answer to keep their operations productive in a weak economy, a new report from market research firm Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) found.

 

In this case, Web conferencing is the business tool for overseas business.

 

The report, called “Asia Pacific Web Conferencing Software and Services Markets,” examined hosted services/Software-as-a-Service, Web conferencing and webinars, on-premise software and webcasting. It provides market trends, drivers and restraints, competitive and financial analysis and country analysis.

 

Globalization and borderless organizations “have helped the Web conferencing software and services markets fly in the face of the economic downturn,” the report said, which added that “businesses have been looking to stay afloat during these turbulent economic times by using Web conferencing to improve collaboration and cut travel costs.”

 

Growing concerns about communicable diseases and carbon footprints also help drive growth among enterprises with offices in Asia and also local companies of all sizes, the report said.

 

Frost & Sullivan said there was “high” growth in all markets in the Asia Pacific region. And compared to North America and Europe, the market is still young, according to the report.

 

'On-premise software has a strong following in Japan, China, and South Korea, while SaaS (News - Alert) services is favored in Australia, India, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region,' it said.

 

Meanwhile, certain markets such as Japan, China, and South Korea are competitive because of the presence of local market participants and higher entry barriers for multinational competitors.

 

“Owing to the wide range of customers’ adoption potential, Web conferencing needs to evolve to solve the challenges of both very large and small business users,' the report said. “This usually means providing a no-frills, first-rate, and competitive service for small companies and an integrated set of services that may include messaging, mobile integration, online Web meetings, and some form of asynchronous document collaboration product or service for the larger enterprises.”