Video surveillance market to reach $44 billion, fuelled by smart cameras and AI - IDC

Solid growth is expected for the video surveillance camera market, as smart camera systems and analytic software enables new use cases of the technology.

According to new figures from analyst firm  International Data Corporation, the video surveillance camera market will experience growth through 2025, despite the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the exclusion of the two market leaders from contention for U.S. government contracts.

This is largely due to the increasing adoption of smart camera systems and analytical software that enables them to be utilised in a variety of roles beyond simple surveillance, IDC says.

A new forecast from IDC estimates the worldwide video surveillance camera market will grow to $44 billion by 2025, up from $23.6 billion in 2019, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 13%.

"Video surveillance camera growth is being driven by the adoption of smart camera systems and the adoption of the video analytics applications that enable them," says Mike Jude, research director for IDC's Video Surveillance and Vision Applications practice.

"Although the market has seen a short-term decline driven by COVID-19 impacts, the longer-term prospects will be driven by the increasing use of video surveillance in law enforcement and physical security," he says.

IDC's Video Surveillance and Vision Applications practice follows the increasingly important applications of machine vision that augment physical security.

"While most data protection coverage begins and ends with data stored or carried by an organisation's IT infrastructure, IDC's focus also includes the protection of data before it becomes data; that is, protecting the intellectual property that people carry around with them, by protecting the people," the company explains.

"Physical security of the areas that creative people occupy, including, increasingly, from the exposure to biological threats like COVID-19, is critical to companies that increasingly depend on the introduction of innovative new services and products to drive revenue generation. Losing an employee with a good idea that hasn't yet been expressed could be devastating to the future of a company," IDC says.

The forecast found the North American market is still the top consumer of video surveillance cameras, followed closely by China.

Currently, consumer video surveillance cameras present 32% of the world total, largely as a result of the use of home security systems and mobile cameras such as cameras in automobiles.

IDC says the blacklisting of Chinese camera manufacturers by the US government will not slow down market growth but will open the market to many of the smaller camera producers.

The use of advanced analytics such as AI to enable applications like facial recognition, may trigger regulations which could impede market growth.