Saturday,
January 6, 2001
European eLearning Market to Grow
to $4 Billion by 2004
The European training market is witnessing a trend toward
the delivery of training via the Internet. Accelerated
by the need to provide a broad range of training to a geographically
dispersed workforce at a lower cost, Europe is witnessing
huge growth in this sector of the training market.
IDC estimates the European elearning market will grow
to $4 billion by 2004, representing a compound annual growth
rate of 96%. By the end of the forecast period, over 50%
of the total will be derived from IT-related training.
The remainder will be made up of soft skills training,
such as sales, marketing, and leadership skills.
According to IDC, content is the largest component of
the elearning market. "Although the delivery solutions
or infrastructure tools segment of the market is an important
one, I believe it will become increasingly commoditized
over the next few years with a few dominant players emerging," said
Sheila McGovern, senior research analyst at IDC. "The
market is not only highly fragmented but also volatile
with a variety of players both old and new vying for a
dominant position. The traditional players are likely to
have a strong role in the future consolidation of the market," McGovern
added.
The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Sweden are the
strongest markets in the adoption of elearning because
Internet adoption levels are already high in those countries.
In addition, there is less of a language localization issue
in these countries as a high proportion of the population
speaks English and is used to conducting business in English.
"There are a variety of strategies that could lead
to success in this market," McGovern said. "One
approach is to have an integrated offering - a total elearning
solution. The key is in applying the right technology to
the right learning environment. The other strategy is to
develop partnerships with other players that allow the
vendor to provide a wide range of products/services across
different content areas and countries."
Quality content, combined with strong instructional design,
will continue to be the hallmarks of a leader in this market
similarly to the traditional training market. "However,
the lack of knowledge from buyers will drive them to choose
on the basis of the vendor's reputation. A solid reputation
remains the main criteria for choice as it entails quality
and trust that enable market leaders to be true training
partners to their customers," McGovern concluded.
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