In 2024, the worldwide Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) market revenues grew 7,8% year-on-year (YoY) to $69,2-billion, according to the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Unified Communications and Collaboration Tracker.
Further, the worldwide UC&C market is forecast to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 3,9% during 2025 to 2029 to reach cumulative revenues of $85,4-billion.
Integrated unified communications (UC) and customer engagement (CE) solutions represent the fastest-growing yet smallest segment in the global UC&C market. These solutions offer essential customer communications features and cater to organisations that need frequent customer interactions across functional teams, but do not require a full-service contact centre. This integrated UC-CE segment is a relatively recent market development and is expected to grow at a 33% CAGR from 2025 to 2029, reaching nearly $2-billion by 2029.
“The worldwide UC&C market is undergoing a massive transformation with new AI capabilities being released every quarter,” says Denise Lund, research VP, Worldwide Telecom and Unified Communications and Collaboration at IDC. “Businesses are recognising the value of AI in UC Employee Engagement and UC Customer Engagement solutions. However, the AI-driven growth anticipated in the coming years will be counterbalanced by declines in IP Phones, IP PBX/UC Systems, private cloud UCaaS, and videoconferencing infrastructure segments.”
Meanwhile, worldwide revenues in the Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) market grew 7,7% YoY to $16,7-billion in 2024.
“The worldwide CPaaS market is growing steadily as the demand for API-powered customised communications use cases continues to rise, particularly to leverage AI-driven capabilities,” says Courtney Munroe, research vice-president, Worldwide Telecommunications Research at IDC. During 2025 to 2029, CPaaS revenues are expected to grow at a 9,3% CAGR to $25,9-billion.
UC&C company highlights:
- Microsoft’s UC&C revenues rose 14% YoY to $31,5-billion in 2024, accounting for a 45,6% share of the worldwide UC&C market (up 2.4 percentage points from 2023).
- Zoom’s UC&C revenue grew approximately 1% YoY in 2024 to $4,3-billion. The company accounted for a 6,2% market share, losing 40 basis points compared to 2023.
- Cisco’s UC&C revenue fell 4,6% YoY to $3,7-billion in 2024, while its market share declined by 70 basis points YoY to 5,3 % in 2024.
CPaaS company highlights:
- Twilio continued to lead the worldwide CPaaS market with a 24% market share, up 70 basis points from 2023. Its CPaaS revenues surpassed $4-billion in 2024, growing 11% YoY.
- Sinch also maintained its second place with a 15% market share in 2024, down 1 percentage point from 2023. Its CPaaS revenue grew approximately 1% YoY to $2,4-billion in 2024.