Worldwide Unified Communications & Collaboration Market Soars In 2020: IDC

By Godson Umejiego, Correspondent USA

The worldwide Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) market grew 29.2  per cent year over year and 7.1 per cent quarter over quarter to US$13.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020 (4Q20) , according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Unified Communications & Collaboration Q View. Revenue growth was also up an impressive 24.9 per cent for the full year 2020 to US$47.2 billion.

How business was conducted changed dramatically in 2020 due to COVID-19, driving companies of all sizes to consider and adopt scalable, flexible, cloud-based digital technology solutions (e.g., Unified Communications as a Service or UCaaS) as part of their overall integrated UC&C solution. Vendors and service providers also saw exponential growth in the number of video and collaboration end users in 2020. In 2021 and beyond, IDC expects worldwide UC&C growth will be driven by customers across all business size segments (small, midsize, and large) with interest especially in video, collaboration, UCaaS, mobile applications, and digital transformation (DX) projects.

Some UC&C market specifics include the following:

Hosted Voice/UC Public Cloud (UCaaS) grew 26.1 per cent year over year and 6.8 per cent sequentially in 4Q20 to nearly US$4.6 billion in revenue. For the full year 2020, public cloud UCaaS revenue increased 21.2 per cent to US$16.4 billion.

UC Collaboration (including video conferencing software and cloud services) increased 48.0 per cent year over year and 5.1 per cent sequentially to reach almost US$6.2 billion in revenue in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, UC Collaboration revenue increased 45.0 per cent to US$22.1 billion.

Revenue for IP Phones declined 20.4 per cent year over year but grew 20.3 per cent sequentially in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, IP Phones revenue declined 22.8 per cent to US$1.9 billion. Shipments of IP Phones declined 23.1 per cent  year over year but increased 14.7 percent sequentially. For the full year 2020, shipments of IP Phones were down 22.2 per cent.

Enterprise Videoconferencing Systems (i.e., videoconference room endpoints) surprisingly increased 26.1 per cent year over year and 36.5 per cent sequentially to more than US$827 million in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, revenue increased 12.4 per cent to almost US$2.6 billion.

“In 2020, COVID-19 caused many businesses and organizations to re-think their plans for leveraging digital technologies and accelerated interest in and adoption of solutions such as team collaboration, team messaging, videoconferencing, and UCaaS, among other technologies,” said senior research analyst, Unified Communications and Collaboration at IDC, Rich Costello. “In 2021, IDC expects positive growth numbers across these key UC&C segments to continue, albeit at slightly more modest rates.”

From a regional perspective, the UC&C market saw positive numbers across the board in 4Q20 and for the full year 2020

In North America, UC&C revenue was up 3.1 per cent quarter over quarter and 30.1 per cent annually in 4Q20 to almost US$6.3 billion. For the full year 2020, revenue was up 26.1 per cent to US$22.9 billion.

Asia/Pacific (including Japan) revenue was up 14.9 per cent sequentially and 36.9 per cent year over year to more than US$2.4 billion in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, revenue was up 28.1 per cent to almost US$8.4 billion.

Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) revenue was up 9.5 per cent quarter over quarter and 23.8 per cent annually in 4Q20 to US$4.0 billion. For the full year 2020, revenue was up 20.9 per cent to US$14.3 billion.

Latin America revenue increased 3.6 per cent compared to 3Q20 and 27.3 per cent year over year in 4Q20 to more than US$441 million. For the full year 2020, revenue was up 27.6 per cent to over US$1.6 billion.

UC&C Company Highlights

Microsoft’s total worldwide UC&C revenue was US$4.4 billion, up 3.5 per cent sequentially and 41.9 per cent year over year in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, Microsoft revenue was US$16.1 billion, up 46.0 per cent, representing a 34.2 per cent share of the worldwide UC&C market.

Cisco’s total worldwide UC&C revenue in 4Q20 was nearly US$1.3 billion, down 2.3 per cent compared to 3Q20 and down 5.8 per cent year over year. For the full year 2020, Cisco revenue was declined 4.6 per cent to almost US$5.0 billion, representing a 10.5 per cent share of the worldwide UC&C market.

Zoom’s total worldwide UC&C revenue increased 13.6 per cent sequentially and a whopping 377.6 per cent year over year to almost US$863 million in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, Zoom’s revenue grew 333.4 per cent to US$2.6 billion, representing a 5.5 per cent share of the worldwide UC&C market.

Avaya’s total worldwide UC&C revenue was up 6.7 per cent quarter over quarter and 25.3 per cent year over year to US$353.5 million in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, revenue was up 14.8 per cent to over US$1.2 billion, representing a 2.6 per cent share of the worldwide UC&C market.

RingCentral’s total worldwide UC&C revenue grew 9.3 per cent compared to 3Q20 and 31.3 per cent annually to US$252 million in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, revenue was up 32.5 per cent to US$899 million, representing a 1.9 per cent share of the worldwide UC&C market.

The IDC Worldwide Quarterly Unified Communications & Collaboration Qview provides total market size and vendor market share data in an easy-to-use Excel pivot table format that includes.