Subscribers of unified services reaches 1.6M

Subscribers of unified communications as a Service (UCaaS) nearly tripled to reach 1.6 million, and now account for 24% of total cloud UC subscribers, a research report said.

Synergy Research Group also said this is up from 21% three years earlier. Together, four providers account for nearly half of UCaaS subscribers.

8×8 is the segment’s clear leader, with 19 % of subscribers. RingCentral, Vocalocity, and ShoreTel follow, with 10 %, 9%, and 8 %, respectively. 8×8, RingCentral, and Vocalocity are all active in the public UCaaS segment, while ShoreTel provides private UCaaS.

The leaders of the UCaaS segment as a whole are determined in large part by their market positions in North America—in fact, each of the top four global UCaaS providers by market share hold the same position in North America. The region accounted for 87% of UCaaS subscribers in Q1 2013, followed by the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region, which had 10% of worldwide UCaaS subscribers.