Europe Blockchain Technologies Market on Track to Hit $3.6 Billion in 2022, According to IDC

Despite a slow start, Europe is now one of the fastest-growing regions worldwide for blockchain spending, according to a new report from International Data Corp. (IDC). This is due to a number of factors, such as enterprises moving blockchain to production and a wave of local start-ups driving marketing and sales activities.

Blockchain spending in Europe will reach more than $800 million in 2019, the analyst firm’s “Worldwide Semiannual Blockchain Spending Guide, 1H18”.  Western Europe will account for 83 percent of spending and Central and Eastern Europe 17 percent. Total spending in Europe will reach $3.6 billion in 2022, with a 2018–2022 five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 73.2 percent.

In terms of technologies, IT services, such as consulting, outsourcing, deployment and support, and education and training, will drive spending, accounting for nearly 63 percent of European spending in 2019, growing at a 2018–2022 CAGR of 76.6 percent according to Carla La Croce, senior research analyst, Customer Insights and Analysis, IDC. "This is because blockchain needs to step up and demonstrate its production-readiness, and businesses need to ensure they take a long-term strategic view of their overarching blockchain initiatives," she says.

Blockchain emerged from the financial sector and the technology is now well established there, whether as a POC or a real deployment in production, with banking the leading industry in terms of blockchain spending in Europe. Finance will account for a third of total spending in 2019, with widespread uses, from trade finance and post-trade/transaction settlements to cross-border payments and settlements, as well as regulatory compliance. Insurance is expected to be the fastest-growing industry over the 2018–2022 forecast period, with a CAGR of 81.3 percent.

"Interest in blockchain among supply chain industries is seen in the increasing number of use cases for tracking products, such as lot lineage provenance and asset/goods management, from food to luxury goods," said La Croce. "The aim is to reduce paperwork, make processes more efficient, prevent counterfeiting, and improve trust and transparency with trading partners and consequently with their customers as well."

IDC also sees strong competition between cloud giants to host, manage, and service the emerging blockchain ecosystems, especially from IBM and Microsoft, along with Amazon, Oracle, Google, and SAP, with Alibaba and Huawei expected to play an increasing role in the East," said Mohamed Hefny, program manager, Systems and Infrastructure Solutions, IDC. "Building consortiums and recruiting the leading enterprises in various segments is becoming a race in blockchain now, and as a result we are witnessing a growing number of large pilot projects."

(For more information visit https://www.idc.com).