Emerging Economies From Asia-Pacific To Drive Multi-Fold Growth Of CPaaS This Year In order to deliver an omni-channel experience, businesses might end up buying separate solutions for each channel, only to later discover that it wasn't the safest bet

With customer experience taking center stage, businesses can no longer rescript the channels which can or can't be used to contact them. Today, customers demand the flexibility to communicate with businesses in more than one way. In order to deliver an omni-channel experience, businesses might end up buying separate solutions for each channel, only to later discover that it wasn't the safest bet. Disparate systems within an organization may result in worsened experience for the customer with no continuity between two or more solutions. This is where communication platform as a service (CPaaS) comes in.

Simply put, CPaaS are cloud-based communication services that give developers and businesses the capability to incorporate live audio, video and text capabilities into their mobile applications to facilitate real-time conversations and most importantly, offer customers the flexibility to choose their preferred channel for communication within the business application. Estimated to be worth $3.3 billion in 2018 as per IDC, the CPaaS market is expected to grow at an astounding CAGR of nearly 40 per cent to $17.2 billion in 2023. As businesses look to engage with their customers via mobile applications, enabling customer support and commerce on the go, it can be said that 2020 will be a defining year for the CPaaS Industry.

While historically, CPaaS was mostly about SMS and messaging, it has started evolving to include other preferred channels of communication—voice and video with an opportunity to use emerging technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) for enhanced customer experience.

Earlier, the industry could also be seen dominated by a few players originating from North America and Europe with a large part of business demand coming from the region. However, there has been a gradual yet significant shift with a large number of CPaaS players now looking towards Asia-Pacific for business growth. Furthermore, in the years ahead, major economies in Asia-Pacific being home to the youngest technology workforce in the world, will spur the growth of native CPaaS players in the region. We can, therefore, expect Asia to become the new battleground for CPaaS service providers.

As a matter of fact, the Asia-Pacific region also enjoys a very high smartphone penetration. A report by GSMA intelligence suggests that the Asia-Pacific will account for more than half of new subscribers globally by 2025. During this period, about 424 million new subscribers will be added in the region, taking the total to 3.2 billion, covering 73 per cent of the population. These users are evenly spread across mature markets such as China and South Korea as well as growing economies including Vietnam and India. With more and more people using smartphones, a good deal of communication is bound to happen on the device itself. This necessitates businesses in the region to use a single platform (read: CPaaS) that integrates various channels of communication in order to deliver an exceptional experience that keeps customers coming back for more.

With its unique capabilities, CPaaS helps businesses to achieve more tangible return on investment from their communications investments. In 2020, as the battle for customer's mindshare intensifies, brands that deploy CPaaS to create a more refined and immersive customer experience will emerge stronger and win big.