Collaboration Software (Global Market)

2023: The global cloud collaboration solutions market grew by 20% to $26 billion over the year

In 2023, global spending on cloud collaboration solutions reached $26.08 billion. This is almost 20% more compared to 2022, when costs in this area were estimated at $21.96 billion. The rapid growth is due to an increase in demand for platforms for remote work and remote cooperation. Market trends are addressed in the Market Research Future survey published in early September 2024.

The use of collaboration tools in the cloud has increased amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Such platforms allow employees to communicate, interact and share information wherever they are. As many companies increasingly choose remote or hybrid work models, they need reliable and efficient solutions to organize such processes. Cloud services provide a number of important benefits, including scalability, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, ease of deployment, automatic updates, and seamless integration with other applications.

Another factor contributing to the rapid development of the industry, the authors of the study call the desire of organizations to increase their productivity and make operations more efficient. In this regard, cloud collaboration tools provide enterprises with a number of opportunities to optimize their activities. In particular, centralized access to information in real time becomes possible. Cloud solution providers offer modular platforms that allow companies to configure and integrate specific tools and applications to meet their unique needs. Plus, the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning to support functions such as natural language processing, predictive analytics, etc. has a positive impact on the market.

Functionally, the cloud collaboration solutions market is segmented into communication and messaging, file sharing and storage, video conferencing, project management, and customer relationship management (CRM). Among them, the communications segment held the largest share in 2023. There is also an increasing need for video conferencing tools . It is noted that small and medium-sized enterprises make the largest contribution to total sales. Most often, cloud collaboration solutions are implemented by organizations from healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, education and government: these tools serve to improve communication and improve productivity.

Significant market players are called GoTo Technologies,, Citrix Systems,, Dropbox Adobe Systems LogMeIn,,,,, Oracle,,, etc Microsoft IBM Cisco. Google SAP Slack Technologies Growth in the demand for cloud collaboration solutions is observed in all key regions, including North America and. At the same time, Europe the highest dynamics is recorded in the Asia-Pacific region due to the increasing number of startups, small and medium enterprises that require platforms for remote interaction.

At the end of 2024, revenue in the market under consideration is estimated at $30.99 billion. Market Research Future analysts expect a compound percentage CAGR of 18.79% in the future. As a result, by 2032, the cost of cloud collaboration solutions on a global scale will reach $122.81 billion.^[1]

2021: Global Collaboration Software Market Grows Strongly for Fifth Year in a Row

Global spending on collaboration software in 2021 increased by 28.4% compared to a year ago and amounted to $29.1 billion. This is evidenced by data from IDC analysts released on August 16, 2022. According to them, the market in question has shown growth rates above 10% for five years in a row.

According to the study, in 2021, demand increased in all segments of the market in question, including:

• Collaboration applications
• video conferencing software;
• Products for virtual events
• solutions for organization and interaction of working groups;
• email applications.

The global collaboration software market is growing strongly

Such software helps employees exchange information - hold conference calls, share documents, make newsletters, as well as set tasks and track their status. It is not surprising that global business practice is experiencing a new trend - the rejection of corporate portals in favor of solutions based on communication platforms, experts say. It was the intranet platforms that the majority of respondents called the most useful solution for themselves and for the employer. The functionality of such resources is not limited to correspondence: they can be integrated into other corporate applications (for example, calendar or task manager), provide analytics functions, segmentation of the audience of mass mailings, and much more.

According to analysts, the market for collaboration software is growing due to several factors, including an increase in the number of employees involved in joint work in companies, the purchase and integration of several solutions by the business to meet their corporate needs, as well as an increase in product prices in the market and the emergence of new features.

IDC listed several benefits of technology for collaboration: being able to work from anywhere, creating a more productive and inclusive employee community, and enabling digital business transformation.

Waiting for and implementing these applications at workplaces and beyond has become a given, says IDC analyst Wayne Kurtzman, whose words the company's press service quoted on August 16, 2022. - Collaboration platforms will become more attractive, visual, functional and popular in communities in the coming years. New smart features will evolve quickly and keep you running from anywhere.

The global collaboration software market is growing strongly

Speaking about the factors driving the growth of the collaboration application market, analysts noted that virtual events represent a great opportunity to attract an audience that may not be able to attend key events. IDC forecasts that the collaboration application market will grow to $63.8 billion by 2026.

The IDC study does not name the world's largest collaboration software vendors. Industry Research analysts list the following vendors:

• IBM;
• Microsoft;
• Slack Technologies;
• VMware;
• Facebook.
• Igloo.
• 8x8.
• Fuze.
• Vonage Networks.
• Atlassian.

According to the magic quadrant of Gartner, the key players in collaboration solutions are Skype for Business (Microsoft), Zoom and Webex (Cisco), where Webex (Cisco) has been leading for more than a decade.^[2]

2020: Market growth of 8.7% to $3.83 billion - Gartner

The volume of the global market for social network services and collaboration software at the end of 2020 reached $3.83 billion, an increase of 8.7% compared to 2019. The demand for such solutions was spurred by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, due to which companies around the world began to actively resort to a remote format of work. This is stated in a study by Gartner, published at the end of March 2021.

Many of the existing scenarios promoting the virtual space collaboration market, such as coordinating a distributed workforce and providing a "virtual water cooler," have suddenly become unusually popular due to the pandemic, "explained Craig Roth, Gartner vice president of research. - Tools for communication and collaboration in a matter of weeks turned from just pleasant to indispensable.

Although some employees are already beginning to return to offices, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to irreversible changes in the structure of work with personnel. In the future, the company will have to allocate additional funds to invest in the development of special technologies that can facilitate the organization of open presentations and the exchange of information in the virtual space. The need remote work ON for support during a pandemic, as well as integration with other enterprise applications, according to Gartner, stimulates significant growth in the social and collaboration software market around the world.

According to the updated forecast, Gartner the global market for social software and systems for joint work will amount to $4.5 billion in 2021, an increase of 17% compared to 2020.

The collaboration software market has taken off thanks to the pandemic

Despite the fact that some employees are returning to office space, the pandemic has already changed the structure of the workforce, and, according to the forecast, this will require additional investment in technology to organize open communication and exchange information.

The pandemic has shifted the long-term growth curve of the social and cooperation software market up, with double-digit (14%) growth on an annualized basis in 2022.

"The pandemic has given a sudden boost to many of the existing application scenarios driving the social and collaborative software market, such as coordinating a distributed workforce and providing a" virtual cooler, "" said Craig Roth, Gartner vice president of research. "These tools have gone from" useful options "to" must-use "within weeks."

The volume of the global market for social network services and collaboration software at the end of 2020 reached $3.83 billion, an increase of 8.7% compared to 2019

Another key trend driving market growth is the integration of collaboration software into other applications and platforms as built-in add-on features. Gartner predicts that by 2025, nearly 65% of enterprise software providers will include similar software and collaboration features in their product portfolios in some form.

Providers of bundled business applications such as ERP and CRM software previously offered basic features for communication and collaboration. However, they now face more specific requirements, and these requests require seamless implementation of non-standard tasks such as conferences and content markup into process-oriented products. Partnerships between software vendors will become increasingly important as tight integration of disparate application features requires close partnerships, says Craig Roth.

According to him, partnerships between software providers, which are necessary for the close integration of disparate application functions, will become increasingly important.^[3]

Analysts say that partnerships between software vendors, which are necessary for the close integration of disparate application functions, will become increasingly important.

According to experts, generally accepted collaboration services, meanwhile, are gradually turning into infrastructure services, which increasingly isolates them from each other. Microsoft and Google have entered the market by integrating collaboration tools into their own cloud office packages, which are used by many companies. Analysts believe that developers of non-busy office packages need to focus on specific scenarios: sales, marketing, customer support, procurement, etc.

2019: $2.7 billion in sales - Gartner

The global market for social communication and collaboration software reached $2.7 billion in 2018, according to the research agency Gartner. The data were released on September 24, 2019.

In Gartner terminology, we are talking about software that is used by teams, communities and users of corporate networks. These products can be adapted for a variety of collaborative activities, from project coordination in small development groups to data exchange between employees in large companies. The software offers a virtual environment where users can interact with each other, create data, organize it and exchange it.

The global social communication and collaboration software market reached $2.7 billion in 2018

The collaboration solutions market has become the most fragmented and case-oriented than ever, so it can be very easy to enter, "says Craig Roth, vice president of research at Gartner. - We expect that by 2023, almost 60% of enterprise software manufacturers will develop various functions for social interaction and collaboration in their product portfolios.

Speaking of fragmentation, the expert means segments such as applications for communicating with employees or holding conferences, which often do not compete with each other.

This is not a market where the winner gets everything, so there remains great potential for innovative opportunities that can expand the volume of each segment, Roth continues. He connects the future of the market with social analytics, virtual personal assistants and smart devices.

The report notes that the distribution of collaboration software in companies is associated with an increasing amount of routine work. This leads to an increase in the number of users of such products and an increase in sales to developing regions such as China. It is projected that by 2023, the number of mental workers in the world will increase to 1.14 billion, with one in four employees out of five representing emerging economies.

The proliferation of collaboration software in companies is associated with the growing volume of routine work

Largely thanks to these people, the global market for applications for social communication and collaboration in 2023 will double compared to 2018 and reach $4.8 billion, Gartner expects.

Analysts say that social tools and means of interaction help improve the efficiency of business processes. 58% of corporate users reported that they use real-time messaging applications in their daily work, and 45% of respondents talked about using social networks every day.

Employees working in the digital space turn to the tools they use in their personal lives at work. Mobile messengers are quite common in the work of companies, as well as social networks and tools for sharing files. When such means are used, the personal capabilities of workers and their work experience are effectively combined, - said Craig Roth.

According to him, companies want to have a single platform for collaboration, but most of them did not find one in one product, so they prefer to use several technologies from different manufacturers.

Gartner does not provide a balance of power among the largest manufacturers of software for social communication and collaboration, but mentions the following companies in its study:

• Microsoft
• Slack
• Adobe
• Atlassian
• Google
• Salesforce
• Zimbra
• IBM
• VMware
• SAP
• Zoho
• Jive Software
• Huddle
• MangoApps
• Igloo
• TIBCO Software
• OpenText
• Acquia
• Muhimbi
• Liferay
• Jostle
• Sitrion
• SocialText
• Broadcom
• Interact Software
• Oblong
• Zyncro Tech
• EmpowerPoints
• LumApps
• ^[4]

Notes