Location-based Services Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

Location-based Services Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The location-based services market was valued at USD 23.14 billion in 2019, and it is expected to reach USD 73.43 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 22.41%, during the period of 2021-2026. The proliferation of smartphone usage is driving the location-based services market.

Key Highlights

• Location-based services (LBS) have emerged significantly during the past few years. It is increasingly being used for locating friends in an area, locating the nearest restaurant, or advertising deals to shoppers in the nearby area. LBS gives users access to relevant and up-to-date information about their surroundings and allows businesses to update their customers regarding their orders. All these LBS applications offer a dynamic user experience, providing a convenient method for the interaction of business enterprises with customers.
• The fastest developing positioning methods are based on a combination of mobile positioning and satellite-based GPS. With more widespread methods, like global cell identity (CGICTA) and enhanced observed time difference (E-OTD), the practical precision falls in the range of 50–1000 m. These technologies create opportunities for the end-users based on the accuracy needed for specific applications' location identification.
• Location can be determined by using E-OTD, observed timed difference of arrival (OTDOA), wireless-assisted GNSS (A-GNSS), and hybrid technologies, which combine A-GNSS with other standard technologies. Better location and accurate speculated time of arrival in real-time can be offered to the commuters and service seekers, using location-based services that track the vehicular movement. This is expected to gain a significant market base, coupled with the countries' significant efforts across the world, trying to achieve smooth transportation goals as a part of their smart city projects. These developments are expected to create increased opportunities, particularly in the Latin American and Asia-Pacific markets over the forecast period.
• Furthermore, with the significant ongoing investments for integration of 3D maps applications with smartphones, market players, such as Nokia, Samsung, and other OEMs, are entering this market. Online web services providers, such as Amazon Inc. and Microsoft Corp., among others, have also started offering 3D maps on their platforms. For instance, Parrot, a prominent player providing wireless devices for mobile phones, has positioned its consumer drones for 3D modeling, mapping, and agricultural uses. These instances are expected to drive market demand across emerging economies during the forecast period.
• Location-based services currently face tremendous risks from government policies and regulations on consumer privacy. Most of the software application developers are becoming aware of the increasing international privacy laws, as well as industry codes of self-regulation, that govern its usage. Google is planning to implement a new policy change requiring all app developers to undergo an approval process before their apps collect the user's location information while running in the background. This policy is applied to all new apps from August 2020.
• Moreover, the COVID-19 impact had a varying degree of impact on the location-based services market, primarily due to the diverse effect of the pandemic on the end-user industries that deploy the services. Overall, the market was impacted negatively, although solid recovery is expected to drive the demand for location-based services over the forecast period.

Key Market TrendsFMCG and E-Commerce Sector Expected to Witness Significant Growth

• There has been an increasing trend in e-commerce establishments since the past decade. Mobile apps have contributed to their greater success due to the personalization features. They are easier to use and form a direct link between the brands and customers, thus, enabling high levels of consumer engagement.
• Mobile apps help e-commerce stores analyze the current market and consumer behavior, resulting in better market strategies. E-commerce services based on user geographic location have emerged as a particularly important segment of modern information services. In these user-intensive applications, quality of service is important, and design methods are increasingly relying on software standards to achieve quality.
• E-commerce applications provide tailored offers to customers that reside in specific locations. These offers are delivered to customers in the form of personalized notifications, which are more effective than general-purpose push notifications.
• In other words, marketplaces are relying on artificial intelligence to identify locations and products that are popular there. Once they have arranged the data, sellers can have their inventory shipped to the final location, incurring a one-time cost.
• Warehouses are also using location-based technologies to meet surging e-commerce demand, especially after the pandemic. In a survey of small- and medium-sized warehouse operators conducted by BizTechInsights on behalf of Zebra, 55% of respondents said they were planning to transform their operations to gain real-time guidance, improve decision-making and ensure that their performance was data-driven.
• RTLS encompasses a wide range of location technologies, from Bluetooth beacons and passive radio frequency identification (RFID) to full-scale systems that support constant communications between tagged assets and back-end processes. Many warehouse operators are choosing to deploy a combination of location-based technologies to meet their needs in a cost-effective manner.

Asia Pacific Region is Expected to Occupy Significant Share

• China is not only a major market for LBS in the regional space but also globally, owing to its significant growth in investments toward building infrastructure and technological capabilities, combined with internet and mobile penetration, but the country at a prominent position in the region, as well as in the global market.
• According to the 48th China Statistical Report on Internet Development, the number of internet users totaled 1.011 billion, and the internet penetration rate reached 71.6% in the country as of June 2021, which is huge considering the population of the country. The high level of internet penetration rate along with expanding smartphone audience is expected to create significant opportunities for location-based services in the country.
• Moreover, Japan is home to one of the major automotive industries and is also a prominent exporter. With motor vehicle exports in value terms amounting to 12.8 trillion yen in 2020 and auto-related employment in Japan totaling 5.49 million people (as per Japan Automobile Manufacturer Association), the automotive industry is one of the Japanese economy's core industrial sectors.
• With such a growing automotive industry, Japan has a well-built navigation infrastructure in place and focuses on building technology and infrastructure for autonomous vehicles. The country is implementing 3D maps with self-driving vehicles, offering disaster information via car navigation systems, an AI-based assistant for car navigation systems.
• India's social media penetration is growing significantly. In India, there are about 448 million social media users as of January 2021, and it has increased by 78 million between 2020 and 2021. WhatsApp is the most used app in India, followed by YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Besides, various major social media enterprises are increasingly focusing on the country to increase their number of active users.
• Such trends show the excellent potential for the growth of the LBS market in the country and are encouraging various vendors to include the service in their portfolio. For instance, in August 2021, IT services major Wipro Ltd announced that it has partnered with HERE Technologies to offer location-based services to customers from energy and utilities, manufacturing, transport and Logistics, telecom, and automotive industry verticals.
• Similarly, in October 2021, Ola, a leading cab aggregator and e-vehicle maker announced that it had acquired GeoSpoc, a geospatial service provider, to help develop more accurate mapping, incorporating multi-modal transportation options, deploying real-time satellite imagery to access road quality for increased safety.

Competitive Landscape

The location-based services market is fragmented. Ongoing research and technological advancements are expected to be the key trends in the market. The companies are adopting various strategies to expand their customer base and mark their presence in the market. The primary strategies involve long-term partnerships or mergers/acquisitions.

• October 2021 - Kloudspot Inc. announced its partnership with Cisco Meraki to help organizations offer safer and smarter workspace experiences for customers and employees. The Kloudspot Platform and KloudVision combine real-time location intelligence and video analytics collected from the Cisco Meraki intuitive cloud-first platform to securely integrate unique safety features, such as occupancy monitoring for social distancing, automated triggers, and PPE compliance monitoring.
• October 2021- MTS and Ericsson entered a strategic partnership to develop private networks in Russia. MTS and Ericsson built the first commercial dedicated network in Russia for Polymetal. The goal of the strategic partnership is to meet the demand and jointly support the development of Industry 4.0, which will be built on the advanced network infrastructure that LTE/5G networks provide.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support

Companies Mentioned

ALE International
Teldio Corporation
Cisco Systems Inc.
Creativity Software Ltd.
DigitalGlobe Inc.(Maxar Technologies )
Ericsson Inc.
IndoorAtlas Ltd
Esri Technologies Ltd
GL Communications Inc.
Google LLC
HERE Global BV
HPE Aruba Inc.
IBM Corporation
HID Global (Assa Abloy AB)
Sewio Networks
Ubiquicom
Zebra Technologies Corporation

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