Increasing use of digital signatures to eliminate fraud has been cited as one of the prime factors for strong growth of this market across the world.In recent times, a number of counterfeit and tempering incidences in the financial transaction processes have increased robust demand for digital signature in the enterprise. The global market for digital signature is expected to witness a substantial rise over the forthcoming years.
The rising number of government-funded and industry associations’ initiatives, such as awareness programs for various industries, is also projected to boost the growth of this market in the near future. However, the concerns among consumers over the legality of digital signatures and the disparity between digital signature regulations across various regions may limit the market’s progress over the next few years. In 2016, the global digital signature market was worth US$631.5 mn. Researchers expect it to rise at a notable CAGR of 26.40% from 2017 to 2025 and reach US$4,983.6 mn by the end of 2025.
Cloud Deployment Model to Witness High Adoption Rate
On the basis of the type of deployment, the global market for digital signature has been segmented into on-premise-based digital signature solutions and cloud-based digital signature solutions. Currently, the demand for on-premise-based solutions is much higher than its cloud-based counterpart. However, the popularity of the latter is increasing by leaps and bounds and it will be safe to say that the cloud-based solutions will surpass the on-premise ones in the near future. The rising level of digitization and the growing adoption of cloud computing technologies, especially across Asia Pacific and Europe, are likely to support the cloud segment remarkably over the next few years.
In terms of the industry vertical, the market has been classified into the BFSI, real estate, education, government, healthcare, retail, transportation, legal, and various other sectors and nonprofit organizations. The BFSI segment dominated this market in 2016 with a share of 23%. Thanks to the advent of ‘digital client on boarding’ in the banking sector, is likely to boost the demand for digital signature in the BFSI industry over the forthcoming years.
The expansion of e-commerce industry in the country is witnessed as a good growth opportunity for the market. The U.S. e-commerce industry is projected to expand in future amid rising internet penetration and ease in online transactions. According to the e-Commerce Foundation, in 2015, the e-commerce market in the country was second largest across the globe. The use of digital signature by various e-commerce companies provides them with integrity, confidentiality, authentication and legal non-repudiation in business transactions.The U.S. digital signature market is moderately competitive with players developing new strategies, particularly new product launches to reach their customers in the most effective and efficient way. For instance, in July 2017, Zoho, an operating system (OS) provider, announced the launch of Zoho Sign. The new launch is a digital signature app for businesses, aiming to set the company’s big step in the digital transaction management market. The new launch would enable businesses to sign and send legally binding contracts from anywhere, using a signing process, which is highly simple in nature.
Although the North America market for digital signature is expected to report a healthy rise, it will lose its grounds to the Europe market over the forthcoming years. Supported by the initiatives taken by the governments to create opportunities for organizations to conduct cross border business, the Europe digital signature market is likely to proliferate significantly in the near future. The enforcement of ‘Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions in the Internal Market’ (eIDAS)’ by the Council of the European Union, establishing a new legal structure for electronic documents, identification, signatures and seals throughout the European Union is also projected to stimulate this market over the next few years.
The global market for digital signature is highly competitive in nature. Hence companies are coming up with niche solutions in this domain to stay ahead. For example, Adobe recently rolled out new enhancements of its Adobe Sign for life sciences and pharmaceutical companies, adding more forms automation functionality by including a new way to collect online payments, furthering integrations with human resources and announcing new cloud-based digital signature partners. Some of the other prominent players include, Gemalto, DocuSign, IdenTrust and Thales e-Security, among others.
