Akamai has increased its market share of the cloud video service market serving media and entertainment companies to nearly 30% in early 2013, from about 27% in 2012, a research report said.
The ABI Research report also said other companies competing in the market all have less than approximately 5% market share.
Akamai had $322 million in revenues during the first half of 2013 of a market expected to be worth $2.36 billion by the end of the year. This market is composed of various business models, including content delivery networks (CDNs), online video platforms (OVPs), managed video platforms (MVPs), and video content management systems (VCMS or CMS).
Sam Rosen, practice director at ABI Research said, “We expect horizontal consolidation – where rival CDNs combine to gain scale in their competition with Akamai – as well as horizontal consolidation – where CDNs bring in functions, especially from OVPs, to compete for the largest content producers.”
Recently, Highwinds closed $205 million in private equity funding, citing growth as well as M&A opportunities, while rival EdgeCast closed $54 million.
“Akamai’s historical rival, Limelight Networks, has lost its way. Limelight’s revenues have turned from relatively flat to arching downward in a growing market. The market for CDN is showing in excess of 15% annual growth. Limelight has started messaging about digital presence that speaks more to small and medium business rather than large enterprise buyers – although, part of the strategy includes OVP type functions which may be valuable for media publishers,” Rosen said.