The surging demand for enterprise geographic information system (GIS) solutions, escalating availability of spatial data and cloud technology, elevating investments in GIS solutions, are the major factors driving the growth of the global GIS market. As a result of these factors, the industry is projected to generate $24,607.7 million revenue in 2030, advancing at a CAGR of 11.6% during the forecast period (2020–2030).
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, many health organizations, government agencies, and other institutions started using GIS-enabled mapping solutions, which support in ways including forecasting the spread pattern using big data procured from different sources and advanced analytics; and leveraging augmented reality (AR) to assess epidemic zones and infection hotspots, using 2D/3D maps. In the coming years, geospatial enterprises will provide opinions and suggestions for public health and strongly focus on the development of relevant solutions, in order to encourage wider usage of GIS in the public health sector.
The GIS market is categorized into aerospace and defense, construction, mining, utilities, agriculture, oil and gas, telecommunications, government, and others, on the basis of industry. Out of these, the government sector accounted for the largest share in 2020, as it uses GIS for various applications, such as community planning, urban and rural planning, and information extraction on natural calamities. Although the governments of developed countries are the major users of the technology, developing countries are also heavily investing in digital and data-based GIS solutions for urban and rural planning, public health improvement, and optimal natural resource utilization.
Furthermore, the GIS market is categorized into hardware, software, and service, on the basis of component. Among these, the software category is expected to register the fastest growth during the forecast period, owing to the increasing requirements for mapping field operations, integrating analytics tools, and managing and displaying geographic information through dashboards and reports.
Geographically, North America held the largest share in 2020 in the GIS market, owing to the major applications of the technology in the public sector, including homeland security and defense. GIS can help such agencies in times of terror attacks. For instance, in the event of the detonation of a biological weapon, it can help the government determine the radius of the attack and take preventive measures. Whereas, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) market is expected to register the fastest growth during the forecast period. This will be due to the increasing demand for GIS technology in emerging economies, including China, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
The global GIS industry is consolidated in nature and players are frequently involved in mergers and acquisitions and product launches to gain a significant position in the market. For instance, in July 2021, Hexagon AB announced the acquisition of Immersal Oy, a provider of spatial mapping and visual positioning solutions used to produce AR applications. This acquisition helps the company to offer onsite deep insights, thereby enhancing the field of view with superimposed digital information.
Similarly, in September 2021, Hexagon AB announced the introduction of Leica BLK ARC and Leica BLK2FLY, thus extending its BLK series, which offers a high speed, portability, and mobility with fully autonomous mobile reality capture. Leica BLK ARC is a laser scanning sensor purposely built to improve the autonomous navigation of robots and other carrier platforms, to deliver fully autonomous mobile laser scanning. Likewise, Leica BLK2FLY is a fully integrated, autonomous flying laser scanning sensor, which can quickly and easily scan structures and environments accurately from the air.
Some of the major players operating in the GIS market are Esri Inc., Hexagon AB, Autodesk Inc., Schneider Electric SE, General Electric Company, Precisely Incorporated, Maxar Technologies Inc., Bentley Systems Incorporated, SuperMap Software Co. Ltd., PASCO CORPORATION, IQGeo Group plc, and Trimble Inc.