Video communications platform as a service is poised to transform a wide range of applications and business processes, according to IDC

23 Aug 2016

FRAMINGHAM, Mass., August 23, 2016 – Video communications platform as a service (PaaS) is a radical new approach to building real-time video communications applications. Video PaaS makes it easy for developers to embed real-time video into mobile apps, Web sites, or business processes. With the potential to enable millions of niche communications applications, International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasts the U.S. video PaaS market to grow from $60 million in 2016 to $1.7 billion in 2020, a 130% compound annual growth rate.

Video PaaS delivers live, two-way video with business-grade performance using an API-first product strategy centered on mobile end points. Web developers can work in the language of their choice, prototype in hours, and stand up a production run in days. By leveraging cloud economics, video PaaS drives a much lower cost compared to premises-based video solutions. There are no up-front hardware or software costs, no contracts or commitments, and no subscription fees. Payment is based on micro-billing tied to actual usage.

"The video PaaS market currently consists of a patchwork of individual use cases and specialized applications," said Mark Winther, group vice president and consulting partner, Worldwide Telecommunications at IDC. "But the video PaaS opportunity is not limited to a single solution for a specific industry need. By making it dead easy to embed video into any application, developers can build anything they want and enhance existing B2B or B2C interactions via a uniform visual platform."

There are three categories of applications and ten vertical use case segments that will drive the growth of video PaaS. The communications and collaboration category has use cases in workforce collaboration (adding video to unified communications solutions), video-assisted retail sales, video banking, and telehealth patient-doctor interactions. The show me category has use cases in field force and customer support. Examples include video-aided field technicians, video-enabled insurance claims, and video customer support for consumer electronics and appliances. Education, social and media will be the largest category initially, reflecting the large number of use cases for learning and tutoring, social media, and on-demand marketplaces that have or will integrate video chat capability.

The IDC report, Video Communications Platform as a Service (IDC #US40958616), provides a market definition and five-year forecast for the U.S. video communications platform as a service market. The use-case driven forecast includes a description of the overall market structure and revenue details for the ten use case segments. The report also provides a list of video PaaS vendors.