Big Data Market to Reach $48.3B by 2018

Pedro Hernandez

Updated · Feb 01, 2013

There’s big money to be made in Big Data, according to a forecast from Albany, NY-based Transparency Market Research.

The firm predicts that by 2018, the worldwide Big Data technology market will balloon to $48.3 billion from a comparatively modest $6.3 billion last year, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40.5 percent from 2012 to 2018.

A handful of firms control a majority of the market. According to Transparency Market Research, five companies, namely Hewlett-Packard (HP), Teradata, Opera Solutions, Mu Sigma and Splunk, commanded 60 percent of the Big Data market in 2012.

Global Big Data Growth

Leading the charge is North America. The region generated nearly 55 percent of Big Data revenues last year. By 2018 it will still remain the leader, with a projected 54.5 percent share of the worldwide market. But the fastest growth will take place on the other side of the globe.

The Asia-Pacific region will outpace other markets by growing at a CAGR of 42.6 percent from 2012 to 2018. “Flourishing outsourcing industry, distributed manufacturing hubs and lenient regulations on data sharing are the several factors creating significant opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region for the Big Data market,” explain the firm’s analysts.

While software and service offerings made up over half of the market in 2012, data storage vendors are poised to reap the benefits of strong demand for Big Data solutions. And they’ll have banks and investment firms to thank.

Industries Into Big Data

The storage segment is expected to outpace all others with CAGR of 45.3 percent from 2012 to 2018. “This can be attributed to the exponential increase in the amount of data across different sectors. The financial services sector is one of the major contributors to the Big Data market, and held nearly 20 percent of the market in 2012,” says the group.

Last year, financial services, health care and government sectors drove demand, accounting for 55 percent of the Big Data market. Media and entertainment will gain swiftly, with a CAGR of 41.4 percent from 2012 to 2018.

Expect digital patient files to turn health care into a big player, too. “The multiple and varied stakeholders including the medical and pharmaceutical product industries, providers and patients, all generate pools of data. A major portion of the clinical data is not yet digitized and so Big Data tools are helping these stakeholders to use the pool of data effectively,” informs the research outfit.

Several surveys administered in late 2012 found that while a growing number of companies are embarking on Big Data projects, there is still a rather steep Big Data learning curve.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.

Pedro Hernandez
Pedro Hernandez

Pedro Hernandez contributes to Enterprise Apps Today, and 11Press, the technology network. He was previously the managing editor of Internet.com, an IT-related website network. He has expertise in Smart Tech, CRM, and Mobile Tech, Helping Banks and Fintechs, Telcos and Automotive OEMs, and Healthcare and Identity Service Providers to Protect Mobile Apps.

More Posts By Pedro Hernandez