Web Conferencing MarketGlobalization is one of the inevitable effects of the Internet. And it is globalization that is giving small businesses the opportunity to go international. This trend toward globalization is partly driving the growth of the web conferencing market. Another driving point is the rapid switch in the U.S. marketplace form an asset-based economy to a services-based economy. Changes are occurring in the way companies communicate and people conduct their business relationships. All that everyone is touting is collaboration, collaboration, and more collaboration. As a direct result, software applications that are geared towards collaboration in the workplace are fast emerging in the market. One such software is web conferencing. Gone is the need for businesses to conduct physical, offsite meetings. After all, if something less expensive can accomplish the same thing, why opt for another choice? The web conferencing market is constantly growing as more and more industry lines involve themselves in using the power of the Internet to provide virtual meeting spaces. The web based seminar and web conferencing market is certainly growing as virtual meetings are quickly replacing the traditional business travel and telephone conference call strategies. With the surge in demand around web conferencing technologies rapidly increasing, IDC predicts that the web conferencing market will grow from nearly US$600 million in revenue in 2003 to more than $1.1 billion in 2007. “The world is changing. It is not safe as it used to be. People are not willing to travel for business like they were before,” Kevin Bethke, CEO of Interactive Video Technologies said in an interview. The web conferencing market is certainly hot and growing these days. As more and more people are beginning to realize that travel costs can be reduced to almost a half while at the same time increase productivity levels, the web conferencing market is looking at an unprecedented boom. According to Frost & Sullivan’s David Alexander, the industry research manager of the firm’s multimedia conferencing and collaboration group, he said that changes are occurring even within the web conferencing market. “We are seeing a high level of convergence. New solutions have integrated audio and video for a full online environment,” Alexander said. He also pointed out that technology has progressed to the point that full virtual meetings are now possible. This certainly eliminates the need for face-to-face meetings, if not now, then in the very near future. It won’t be long now that technology available web conferencing market would become so advanced that web conferencing will be just like sitting on the other side of the conference table.
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