US leads global VSaaS market to 2020

LONDON—Now, and for several years to come, the United States will have the largest share of the global VSaaS market and the most common application will be in the commercial space, according to a Technavio report on the global VSaaS market from 2016 to 2020.

The U.S. is the leading country in the VSaaS market, according to Technavio, maintaining about 30 percent of the global market in 2015. The report groups South and North America into a single “Americas” region, which constitutes 42.5 percent of the global market in 2015 and will continue to dominate the market with a similar percentage in 2020, Technavio industry analyst Amrita Choudhury told Security Systems News.

"Video surveillance as a service, in Americas for 2015, was around $750 million,” Choudhury said. “Technavio feels it is likely to reach around $2.5 billion by 2020. So, it's close to 27 percent CAGR.”

“The global video surveillance [as a service] market is $1.76 billion in 2015, and by 2020 it would be around $6.1 billion,” she said. In this report, Technavio focused solely on VSaaS providers using the cloud, Choudhury said.

The commercial market for VSaaS, which includes “retail establishments, private companies, restaurants, and financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies,” will grow at a CAGR 31.88 percent in the forecast period, Choudhury said.

The commercial sector made up about 64 percent of VSaaS applications in 2015. “By 2020, it will be close to 74 percent,” she said. The global commercial market was close to $1.1 billion in 2015 and the segment will grow to around $4.51 billion by 2020, she said.

Choudhury identified four technological trends: video surveillance in educational institutions, edge-based video surveillance, the introduction of thermal cameras and the emergence of advanced technologies—such as H.264 video compression and 360-degree cameras.

The investment need to implement VSaaS could be a challenge for the SMB market with VSaaS, she said. Additionally, VSaaS' cloud-based nature also means that the cloud platform needs to be cybersecure.

Key vendors include Axis Communications, Bosch Security Systems, Cisco Systems, Hikvision Digital Technology, Honeywell and Panasonic.