Industry Economics

Operators in the Tax Preparation Software Developers industry provide software that enables individuals and small businesses to file federal and state tax returns online, often following an automated step-by-step guide.

Due to the necessary nature of filing taxes each year, industry revenue is generally steady.

Further, operators have encountered rising demand over the five years to 2020, as more personal and business filers became comfortable using software programs.

According to the 2020 Tax Returns Study by the National Retail Federation, the share of consumers self-filing with computer software will total 37.0% this year, while more than 70.0% will file online altogether.

This has enabled the industry to outpace growth in demand for other tax-filing services.

Overall, industry revenue has risen at an annualized rate of 5.9% over the five years to 2020 to $3.3 billion, including anticipated growth of 2.5% in 2020.

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has prompted the Internal Revenue Service to extend the deadline for personal tax filings and constrained the US economy, including lower private investment in computers and software.

This is likely to constrain industry revenue growth this year.

Operators in the Video Games Software Developers industry primarily develop video game software for use on computers, video game consoles and mobile devices.

Industry operators do not publish their software, which means industry software is developed independently or alongside a publisher.

First-party and independent developers are excluded, as these companies also handle publishing.

Most operators are second- or third-party developers, which means they are either part-owned or independent of larger industry publishers.

Operators may be contracted by a publisher to produce video game software, or they may sell the rights to their software to a publisher for distribution.

Industry revenue is heavily dependent on innovation within the broader Video Game Software Publishing industry (Research

report 51121e) in addition to consumer demand for video games.

The Video Conferencing Software Developers industry is expected to expand rapidly over the five years to 2020.

The industry’s communications tools have increasingly become indispensable to the operation and continuity of large organizations, particularly large corporations.

This trend has been encouraged by several key trends shaping the corporate landscape, including highly globalized work forces, work from home policies and flatter organizational structures.

Additionally, the functionality and accessibility of video conferencing software has greatly improved as advancements have been made in both software and hardware during the period.

This seamless functionality and greater degree of integration has popularized the unified communications as a service (UCaaS) designation for more robust, enterprise-level platforms.

Overall, the industry’s product innovation and growing indispensability is expected to drive revenue growth of an annualized 25.9% to $7.3 billion over the five years to 2020.

Revenue for the Speech and Voice Recognition Software Developers industry is expected to increase an annualized 12.8% to $16.6 billion over the five years to 2019.

Speech recognition software recognizes the articulated words of a speaker and converts them into a digital format.

Voice recognition can be used like a fingerprint and is aimed toward identifying the speaker, often for security purposes, using voice biometrics solutions.

Furthermore, voice recognition helps consumers with high accuracy speech recognition, natural language understanding, dialog and information management, text to speech and optical recognition.

Additionally, industry operators have benefited from the innovations in artificial intelligence, including machine learning in order to create smarter and more natural experiences.

Industry services are useful for the healthcare, automotive and mobile industries as well as an increasing number of others, the industry is expected to develop rapidly during the period.

Its growth will slow to 6.2% in 2019, while profit represents 30.6% of industry revenue during the same year.

Operators in the Software Publishing industry design, develop and publish software.

Industry revenue expanded rapidly over the five years to 2021, as businesses and consumers increased their investment in software, computers, smartphones and video games.

Rising private investment in computers and software stimulated demand from businesses, while higher consumer spending encouraged consumers to spend on software as well.

Moreover, new internet-based solutions and the increasing popularity of mobile devices have triggered an explosion of mobile software applications.

Industry revenue is estimated to rise at an annualized rate of 7.8% to $396.7 billion over the five years to 2021.

In 2020, the industry encountered remarkable revenue growth of 12.6%, as the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic incentivized businesses to increase spending on software for remote operations and consumers increased spending on social and entertainment software offerings.

Revenue is anticipated to rise 3.3% in 2021.

The Video Game Software Publishing industry produces and distributes video game software for video game consoles, personal computers and mobile devices.

The popularity of smartphone video games and established console game franchises, such as Call of Duty and FIFA, stimulated industry revenue growth over the five years to 2020.

Moreover, mobile video games grew substantially as a portion of industry revenue over the past five years, alongside proliferating smartphone ownership.

According to Pew Research, smartphone ownership in the United States has risen from 59.0% in 2015 to 81.0% in 2019, bolstering access to and demand for mobile games.

Overall, industry revenue rose at an annualized rate of 9.1% to $28.5 billion over the five years to 2020, despite stunted growth of 1.5% in 2020 as the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic reduced consumer spending and confidence.