• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 17, 2017

Thought email was a fading medium? Think again. A study by Transparency Market Research (TMR) predicts a compounded annual growth rate (CPGR) of 19.60% worldwide up to 2025. The global business will rise from $4.52 billion last year to $22.16 billion by the end of the forecast period.

But there are problems, even if you accept those figures. The vendor market is “fragmented and competitive,” due to the presence of well-established suppliers such as IBM, Microsoft Corp., Zoho Corp., Epsilon and Responsys, TMR writes.

Those companies comprised roughly 44% of the overall market in 2016. They have invested in email technology. But you can expect other players to jump in.

The big driving force is software, including white label, third-party and Web-based, it adds.  

TMR predicts a surge in email marketing by small and medium-sized businesses, especially in the retail/ecommece sector, thanks to the growing availability of tools. It adds that small-scale enterprises will contribute the most to the growing global market.

What’s causing the projected worldwide growth? Growing awareness of email, and an increase in the number of people using it to communicate. That will include one third of the world population by 2019 -- good news for email marketers everywhere.  

Don’t think the U.S. will be the dominant nation. The Asia-Pacific region is the leader, with an anticipated CAGR of 22.80%, TMR claims. This is partly due to faster Internet adoption.

The U.S., in contrast, is forecast to expect slower growth, in part because of CAN-SPAM and other regulatory laws — but this remains to be seen. TMR acknowledges that the U.S. has more lenient laws than Canada.

Europe also has tougher regulations; and the Continent comes in at No. 2 in the study. Is the flat growth in the U.S. because most people are already using email and smartphones?

Once again, the only real global worry is the privacy issue, TMR says. However, it has published only a few glimpses of the study, so the full scope of findings is unclear -- and the methodology.

Not to worry. TMR writes that the U.S. email market will thrive, thanks to “the high internet penetration rate, the rising number of smartphone users, and the steady growth in the BFSI sector may assist the North America market for email marketing to find its way to success in the years to come.”