COVID-19 pushes 2020 enterprise video communications revenues to reach nearly US$19 billion

The millions of employees working and networking from home during the COVID-19 pandemic has proven that video is a powerful and successful tool for marketing, collaboration, training, and many other use cases for businesses across multiple industries. Evolving video delivery technologies, coupled with smart content management solutions, continue to provide benefits to enterprise video deployments. The enterprise video market is forecast to generate US$18.7 billion in 2020, according to a new report from global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research.

Low latency video streaming solutions allows live streaming of corporate events to both internal and external viewers. “Artificial Intelligent (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies enable enterprise video applications to be more efficient. Facial and object recognition, scene detection, and speech to text capabilities are making video indexing and search functions easier, faster, and more accurate. AI-assisted content screening allows enterprises to make sure the videos are in-line with regulations. Such features are driving more enterprise video deployments across different industries,” comments Khin Sandi Lynn, Industry Analyst at ABI Research.

Enterprise video deployments are increasingly implemented on the cloud, shortening the deployment time, and reducing costs since cloud-based solutions do not need a substantial CAPEX on hardware and software. “Cloud-based solutions are also highly scalable, providing flexibility to upgrade or downgrade the size of the deployment, as necessary. The expansion of fiber optic broadband networks and ongoing 5G network infrastructure will improve the content delivery process further and open more opportunities in enterprise video deployments,” Lynn adds.

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) based video applications are emerging solutions for corporate training and retail and marketing purposes. AR/VR technologies offer immersive and realistic experiences that are highly impactful in healthcare or industrial manufacturing training programs. In addition, AR/VR technologies enable powerful marketing tools for promoting products and services in automotive, retail, tourism, and many other verticals. The availability of high capacity, low latency networks will create more opportunities for cloud-based AR/VR video applications in the enterprise segment.

Video enables significant cost saving and business efficiency for all businesses, regardless of size. Companies have saved multi-millions of dollars in travel expenses by deploying video for corporate communications and corporate training. “In these unprecedented times of the cancellation of large events, enterprise video applications became essential to connect with thousands of stakeholders across the world,” says Lynn. Low latency and high-reliability delivery capability are essential for delivering live corporate events. Haivision and Wowza are among the vendors supporting low latency streaming solutions while vendors such as Kollective and RAMP provide eCDN solutions which efficiently manage bandwidth and delivery of video.

The Novel Coronavirus outbreak has contributed a significant rise in enterprise video deployment in 2020. Technology advancements and benefits offered by enterprise video solutions will continue to drive the market in the years to come. “As the market continues to grow, video solution providers need to support efficient features for video searching tracking, video metrics, and meaningful analytics. The capability to integrate analytical solutions into marketing automation and customer relationship management systems will also be beneficial to businesses and organizations,” Lynn concludes.

These findings are from ABI Research’s Enterprise Video: ROI and Use Cases technology analysis report. This report is part of the company’s Video and Cloud research service, which includes research, data, and ABI Insights. Based on extensive primary interviews, Technology Analysis reports present in-depth analysis on key market trends and factors for a specific technology.