Worldwide security software revenue totaled $19.9 billion in 2013, a 4.9% increase from 2012 revenue of $19 billion, according to Gartner.
The lower-than-expected growth was due to commoditization of key sub-segments and the decline in growth for two of the top five vendors.
"This slightly tempered growth was partly due to the increased commoditization of the endpoint security (particularly consumer endpoint software) and secure email gateway (SEG) subsegments (particularly consumer endpoint software) that in 2013 accounted for around 25% of the total security software market," said Ruggero Contu, research director at Gartner.
"Overall, the larger trend that emerged in 2013 was that of the democratization of security threats, driven by the easy availability of malicious software and infrastructure (via the underground economy) that can be used to launch advanced targeted attacks,” said Contu.
He added that this ubiquity of security threats has led organizations to realize that traditional security approaches have gaps, thereby leading them to rethink and invest more in security technology.
Although the top two vendors remained the same as last year (Symantec in first place, McAfee in second place), IBM took third place this year, displacing Trend Micro, which dropped to fourth place, although by a small margin. The top four vendors now account for 39% of the total security software market.
The top three regions ranked by year-over-year growth were Emerging Asia/Pacific (12.8%), Greater China (11%) and Eurasia (9.3%). These regions started off from a smaller base when compared with more mature markets. Some of these regions have a strong presence of local or regional vendors, which has presented unique challenges to established vendors as they plan their go-to-market strategies for these regions, particularly Greater China.
The three largest regions (North America, Western Europe and Mature Asia/Pacific) accounted for 83% of the total security software market in 2013, but displayed a cumulative growth of 4.1%.
"The slower-than-average growth for security software in mature markets is due to the saturation of key segments of the technology market and the highly competitive nature of security deals, driven by an expansion of vendor capabilities into adjacent areas and the continuation of mergers and acquisitions," said Contu