New Q2 data from Synergy Research Group shows that for the tenth successive quarter more than 300,000 UCaaS subscriber seats were added to the global installed base, which continues to grow by over 25% per year. While early adoption of UCaaS was driven by small-medium businesses and SMBs still account for the largest share of the market, the market is moving increasingly to large enterprises where subscriber growth rate is now more than double that of SMBs. RingCentral and Mitel remain locked in a battle for market leadership and between them account for over a third of the total market. They are followed by 8x8, Cisco (Broadsoft) and Vonage. In aggregate the leading five vendors have a market share of over 60%. Smaller vendors with particularly high growth rates include Alianza, Fuze and LogMeIn.

UCaaS subscriber numbers are now approaching the eight million mark having double since late 2015, with the market split between retail and wholesale business models. On the larger retail side RingCentral and 8x8 are the leading providers, while in wholesale Mitel and Cisco/Broadsoft lead. The worldwide market continues to be dominated by the US, with market development still being in the early days in most other countries.

“UCaaS is going mainstream now and we are seeing strong uptake by larger enterprises, while mid-market growth remains robust and SMB growth rate is tailing off a bit,” said Jeremy Duke, Synergy Research Group’s founder and chief analyst. "With UCaaS penetration of the PBX market still running at under 10%, there remains a long runway for substantial UCaaS growth over the coming years. Looking ahead we expect to see mid-to-large enterprises increasingly driving subscriber numbers. We will also see countries beyond the US playing a substantially bigger role in the worldwide market.”