SaaS dominates growing web conferencing market

Video may be coming on fast, but the web conferencing market is still going strong, with sales of the web conferencing equipment growing 21 percent in the third quarter compared to a year ago, according to new research.

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The report, from Synergy Research Group, said North America accounted for 60 percent of global revenues in the quarter, but showed signs of slowing compared to other regions.

Still, the report forecast the market to double over the next five years.

SRG said software-as-a-service systems accounted for 83 percent of the revenues in the quarter, adding that sales topped $400 million in each of the first three quarters in 2011.

"With SaaS-based applications being embraced by an increasing number of corporations and users, this will be a strong driver of market growth," said Synergy Research Group's Jeremy Duke. "We project that annual revenues from SaaS-based web conferencing will double over the next five years."

Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) maintains its lead in the market with a 51 percent share in the U.S. and a 41 percent share globally, SRG said. Citrix and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) combined have 25 percent of the market.

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