Anytime the Chinese market is considered in a particular industry the numbers blow everyone else out of the water, and with close to 1.5 billion people, that is to be expected. And while the country is still developing, it is rapidly catching up to first world markets by implementing the latest information and communications technologies (ICT) solutions. The new report from IDC about the Chinese contact center as a service (CCaaS) market highlights this fact. According to its latest survey, which was conducted in February 2015, the market jumped by an impressive 10 percent from August 2014 to February 2015.
When the survey began in August, IDC recorded an anemic 1.3 percent, but the segment entered a period of high-speed growth in the six month period, which increased the market share to 11.3 percent by February.
Jason Shen, Senior Market Analyst, Telecommunication Research, IDC China, attributed the upsurge to, “Fast-growing industries such as group buying are attracted by the fast deployment, cross-region management, and low requirements on physical infrastructures offered by on-demand contact center services.”
The CCaaS platform is deployed in the cloud and it offers fully featured, multi-channel contact center service without the Capex and OpEx of traditional systems. It gives companies cost control, ease of use, location independence, rapid deployment and flexible scalability that adapts to seasonal changes contact centers experience.
The increased adoption of cloud contact services is a global trend, because more organizations have recognized the benefits Shen highlighted in the Chinese market. It is much cheaper to have a hosted solution than it is installing an on-premises infrastructure. The seventh edition of DMG Consulting's Cloud-Based Contact Center Infrastructure Market Report forecasts the number of cloud-based seats will grow by 20 percent in 2015, 18 percent in 2016 and 2017, and 16 percent in 2018.
Shen reported the market in China reached $49.6 million in 2014, and by 2019 it is set to grow to $310 million, which he says will surpass the on premises contact center system segment. While the adoption rate of hosted contact services is increasing across the board, at the present time it is primarily being driven by insurance, e-commerce and finance management segments. The long-term outlook sees several industries increasing their presence in this platform, including online tourism, Internet of Vehicles, telemedicine, and professional services.