The AV market in APAC is expected to drop by 6% in 2020. While this number is significant, its is the lowest rate of decline among all major global regions and revenue is expected to rebound by a robust 9.1% in 2021 to reach USD96 billion.
After reaching its peak in 2019, the worldwide AV market has been sent into a tailspin by the coronavirus pandemic. Ahead of the release of AVIXA’s 2020 Industry Outlook and Trends Analysis focusing on the APAC market, Inavate caught up with the AV industry trade association to find out what the next two years has in store.
In 2019 the APAC AV market was worth USD94 billion and it is expected to plummet to USD88 billion in 2020, AVIXA says in its latest report.
One of the factors that explains APAC’s resilience in these tough times is China outperforming all other major economies during the Covid-19 crisis, with GDP growth remaining positive, increase 1% in 2020, down from 6.1% growth in 2019. Testing and contact tracing will allow the economy to march toward normalcy.
China however is an outlier and examining the GDP across other major markets in Asia Pacific reveals contraction. Japan faces the worst economic impact of any major economy in APAC, with a 3.3% GDP decline, compared to 0.7% growth in 2019.
India’s GDP is set to decline by 2% in 2020, compared to 4.9% growth in 2019. However, GDP will bounce back to 7.7% growth by 2023 due to the rising wealth of the country’s populace.
Australia’s GDP will decline by 5.8% in 2020, down from 1.8% growth in 2019 before returning to growth again in 2021.
Sean Wargo, senior director of market intelligence at AVIXA, said: “Pretty much no matter where you look, we think that true growth doesn't happen until 2022.”
He believes that AV due to its very nature is primed to recover: “AV is nicely situated as part of the solution. Technology is bridging the gap, whether it's remote work facilitation, whether it's content distribution for live events that have gone virtual.
“I think that there's tremendous potential for us to actually look better than initial forecasts as we revise going into next year.”
Delving down into verticals, transportation stands out for the pace of its recovery, with a 13.6% rise in APAC revenue expected in 2021. The long-term outlook for the transportation industry is positive. The industry is expected to invest in technologies to accommodate future outbreaks and emergencies. This includes investment in surveillance, security, control rooms and visual paging. Other long-term drivers include the rising affluence of the burgeoning middle class in China and India.
The large media and entertainment industry also distinguishes itself with 10% revenue growth expected in 2021. This vertical managed to limit its revenue decline in 2020 to less than 1%.
Unsparingly, content distribution seems to be the silver lining for AV as it posts growth in 2020 —the only solution to rise for the year beside security/surveillance/life safety. Content distribution revenue in APAC will rise by 1.9% in 2020, followed by 6.4% growth in 2021.