WEB CONTENT FILTERING MARKET ANALYSIS

Market Challenges And Opportunities

Market Dynamics- Drivers

1. Increasing productivity is expected to drive growth of the global web content filtering market during the forecast period

Regulating and monitoring online activities of every user on the network is a challenging task, particularly for large organizations. Unrestricted Internet use can induce employees to browse social networking, pornography, job hunting, sports, entertainment sites, etc. This consequently leads to lower productivity at the workplace. Research, surveys, and studies indicate that a significant amount of non-work-related browsing takes place during working hours. According to Coherent Market Insights’ analysis, around 60% of employees, waste around 1.7 hours of a typical nine-hour working day. Furthermore, with social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook growing at around 5 million new users per week, social distractions entering the workplace and potentially lowering productivity have been extremely high in recent years. Web content filtering helps to reduce such distractions and enhance productivity of employees. Thus, these factors are expected to drive growth of the global web content filtering market during the forecast period. 

2. Stringent government regulations are expected to hamper the global web content filtering market growth over the forecast period

Increasing need for strong data security and data loss prevention has compelled governments of various countries to enforce web content filtering policies and legislation. Legislations such as the CIPA (Child Internet Protection Act) and other privacy laws across the globe have fueled the growth of the market. Enacted in 2000, the CIPA aims to address concerns over access to obscene and harmful content over the internet by school children. The law mandates schools and libraries receiving federal assistance and e-rate discounts to install web content filters on PCs used by minors as well as adults. The PCIDSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) was developed to enhance cardholder data security and facilitate the wide adoption of data security measures across the globe. Therefore, such regulations are expected to propel the global web content filtering market growth over the forecast period.

Market Dynamics- Restraints

1. Restricted educational resources and business issues are expected to restrain growth of the global web content filtering market during the forecast period

Although web content filtering is used for improving productivity and reducing bandwidth use, it does not serve the said purpose as it limits the use of content mean for educational purpose. This, in turn, negatively impacts the business. The negative impact may be in the form of restricted access to possible consumers, especially on an international scale, or even restricted access for organizations to other potential websites for services and supplies. Such restricted access prevents the organization from accessing best services and competing on a global scale with full capacity. Hence, these factors are expected to restrain growth of the global web content filtering market during the forecast period.

2. Cost and violation of rights are expected to hamper the global web content filtering market growth over the forecast period

Implementing a web content filtering system or censorship system, either on a large scale within a government or on a small scale within a facility, is expensive. It also consumes time and resources. The organization or user has to bear the additional cost of labor and equipment needed to install a filter. A filter, firewall, or any other form of censorship needs to be maintained, repaired, and upgraded regularly. This consumes time and also adds to the cost. Therefore, these factors are expected to hamper the market growth over the forecast period.

Market Opportunities

1. Rapid development of multiplatform solutions can provide major business opportunities

The web filtering market offers a huge opportunity to sellers as well as end-users. Greater financial benefits offered by freeing up bandwidth present strong reasons for higher adoption of filtering software. Heavy traffic on websites during events such as the World Cup and Olympics creates network bandwidth issues for firms of all sizes and types. This offers sellers an opportunity to tap organizations for the adoption of web content filtering solutions.

2. Growing demand for next-generation web filtering solutions can present lucrative growth opportunities

There is a high demand for next-generation web filtering solutions namely cloud-based web security solution. It prevents malware, inspect internet traffic, filters by category, detects advanced threats, protects data, and controls app use for any user. Many organizations are demanding such advanced filtering solutions to enhance their productivity and protect their network from possible cyber-attack.