The enterprise social software market revenue is expected to grow at a rate of 43% per year over the next four years to reach $4.5bn by 2016, according to a research by International Data Corporation (IDC).
The numbers show a huge growth considering the $767.4m revenue in 2011 amidst an increase in enterprise social software adoption, finding use cases across almost all industry verticals as it continues to become a critical decision support and worker productivity tool.
Many organisations are now looking to build and implement an overall social business strategy of which the most appropriate enterprise grade social tools will be a critical component.
IDC Software Business Solutions group vice president Michael Fauscette said companies are turning to social software in increasing numbers as they look for ways to increase collaboration, improve both business and individual worker productivity, and efficiently manage a growing deluge of content and information.
"Compartmentalized and specific collaboration is still required by many organizations and traditional collaborative applications providing closed loop and B2B communications will retain their existence in organizations alongside more open social solutions," he added.
IDC’s research indicated that almost all vendors in the market saw double-digit growth for 2010-2011, with the top two, IBM and Jive, recording greater than 70% growth, where the latter was the fastest-growing in the top 20 with at a rate of 132.3%.
The study revealed vendors should recognise that ad hoc collaboration will continue to complement social activity streams, as enterprise social software is gaining more momentum in business processes and the workspace.
