Microsoft and Zoom Help to Drive Increased UCaaS Market Growth Rate

RENO, NV, December 16, 2020

New data from Synergy Research Group shows that worldwide UCaaS revenues grew by 30% in the third quarter, marking the fourth consecutive quarter in which the year-on-year growth rate has increased. While RingCentral, Mitel and 8x8 together continue to account for half of all UCaaS revenues, the rapid growth of Microsoft and the emergence of Zoom have helped to propel recent market growth. In the last three quarters Microsoft market share has increased by almost five percentage points, while Zoom has come from nowhere to rapidly grab 2% of the market. The enterprise segment is growing more rapidly than the mid-market and small business segments and Zoom has now gained a meaningful foothold with enterprise customers, where it’s market share is already approaching 10%. Total UCaaS subscriber numbers are now approaching 14 million and have doubled since early 2018. While growth is strong in all regions, the worldwide market continues to be dominated by the US which accounts for over three quarters of all UCaaS subscribers. Market development is still in the early days in most other countries. RingCentral is the clear market leader being more than twice the size of its nearest competitor, thanks to its strength across multiple service segments and customer groups. It is the leader with small businesses and the mid-market and is also the joint leader with enterprise customers, alongside Fuze.

“We have seen a common theme among a variety of cloud markets over the last two quarters, with the pandemic helping to boost what were already strong growth rates. UCaaS has followed a similar trend with the year-on-year growth rate in Q3 being five percentage points higher than what we saw at the beginning of 2020,” said Jeremy Duke, Synergy Research Group’s founder and Chief Analyst. “This has helped Zoom to make a sudden and strong entry into the UCaaS market, following its major success with its Video Conferencing service. The stronger-than-expected market growth has also been an opportunity for other vendors, with Microsoft being the most notable example of a company gaining market share.”