The global chatbot market, which was valued at $113 million in 2015, is predicted to reach $994.5 million by 2024, growing at a compound annual rate of 27.8 percent, according to new research from Transparency Market Research.
Facebook, Google, and Microsoft were the clear winners in the global chabot market, collectively taking close to 97.5 percent of the total revenue, according to the research, which found that consumers show an extremely high preference for the products of these three players due to their recognition and the much larger investments they make into developing chatbot technologies. Additionally, Yahoo, has also positioned itself to gather a significant share in the market, it said.
The report also noted that the scope of entry for new players into the global chatbot market is minor, given the sheer volume of the communications markets taken up by messaging applications like Kik, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, WhatsApp, Microsoft's Skype, and Line.
Part of the reason for the strong growth, TMR reported, is that the market thrives on the need by enterprises to deliver better customer experiences while maintaining a virtual and automated presence. The power to effectively resolve customer queries and complaints, while efficiently promoting company products to the correct demographics are extremely valuable tools for any business today, the firm said.
The research also found that small and midsized businesses often do not or cannot make the best of chatbots like the bigger fish can. Large enterprises are in a much better position to avail themselves of the business process automation and optimized product marketing that chatbots offer to a very high degree and on a much greater scale, TMR reported.
Larger enterprises have also been lured toward chatots by the many advancements in artificial intelligence over the recent years. These improvements have allowed chatbots to filter down to basic consumer levels and therefore create a tighter network for enterprises. The global chatbot market is also augmented by the growing demand for online messaging and the overall increasing scope of applications found for chatbots across multiple industry verticals.
The leading factor restricting growth so far has been the rate at which chatbot capabilities are growing in comparison to the areas where they can be used. Messaging and voice technologies are now a mainstay in several industries and are driving the demand for chatbots across the world. However, there are still several key hosting issues that need to be resolved, such as chatbot management, monitoring, security, and integration. The inability of hosts to provide for these facilities is deterring several enterprises from taking advantage of the global chatbot market.
"The proliferation of chatbot-as-a-service is expected to becoming a key area of opportunities for the players currently existing in the global chatbot market. The growing and seemingly irreplaceable involvement of cloud computing across all industries is creating the need for implementing it within the global chatbot market, thereby opening new doors for growth," TMR's analysis concluded.