Web Filtering Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Web Filtering Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14% over the forecast period 2021 to 2026. The increasing penetration of the Internet has enhanced data breaches, eventually making it easier to reach business servers, consequently boosting the adoption of web filtering. Favorable government rules and regulations and the escalating need for the business to thoroughly control the network bandwidth consumption have stoked the growth of the web filtering market.

Key Highlights

• IT sector had accelerated growth in the subsequent years, and it requires reliable security service to defend its data from a security breach. For instance, according to CompTIA, the sector grew by 104% between 2018 and 2023. This is giving rise to the growth of the web filtering market, which is created especially to restrict unwanted information. Technical innovators had made efforts to design solutions such as firewalls, anti-viruses, and intrusion prevention systems to serve the web content filtering functions.
• Growing concerns about security threats are the principal factor driving the growth of the market. According to Symantec Corporation, in the year 2018, 953 thousand web attacks were blocked daily, up from 611 thousand daily blocked attacks in the previous year. Towards the end of 2018, the number of web attacks blocked each day was more than the number at the beginning of the year. As per NortonLifeLock Inc, over 90% of global online users had at least one significant concern about data privacy as of 2019.
• The market is dominating revenue due to favorable government regulations, which support the adoption of web content filtering solutions and innovative technology. For instance, according to the US Congressional Budget Office, for FY 2021, the U.S. government proposed an 18.78 billion U.S. dollar budget for cybersecurity, representing a decrease from the previous fiscal year. These federal resources for cybersecurity are set to support a broad-based cybersecurity strategy for securing the government.
• Yet, the web filtering market faces significant hurdles as it includes high cost during installation as well as maintenance, business issues, violation of rights, and inadequate educational resources. The increasing concerns regarding IT Security in companies and decreasing the ill-usage of the internet have led to an addition in this sector's growth opportunities as these serve to be significant aspects that spur the growth of the market.

Key Market Trends

BFSI to Drive the Market Growth

• With a growing number of cybercrimes activities, the security of sensitive data such as financial banking details, personal banking details, personally identifiable information, and confidential corporate data is at high risk. Due to these reasons, the demand for BFSI security solutions has witnessed a high requirement, consequently boosting the Web Filtering Market's growth.
• For instance, according to Verizon Communications Inc, in 2019, the global Finance industry experienced 1,509 cybersecurity incidents. Public and Professional services were the most targeted sectors, with 7,463 and 6,843 reported incidents. As per the IC3 & FBI, in the year 2019, 16,503 online identity theft cases were reported. Phishing and similar fraud ranked first, with 114,702 complaints.
• The rising implementation of regulatory standards, coupled with the surge in choosing cloud-based security solutions and growing modes of online payments, is presumed to give a lift to advanced security solutions in the BFSI sector, fueling the market's growth. For instance, in nations such as Qatar, where vital investments in infrastructure are being made for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, banks are spending in advanced security solutions.

North America Dominates the Market

• The market in North America is commanding the Web Filtering Market in terms of revenue owing to positive government regulations, and the enhanced adoption of web content filtering in schools, institutions, and business organizations, which boost the adoption of web content filtering solutions and innovative technology.
• North America holds a notable market share and dominance is expected to continue through the forecast period. Increasing online malware and an increase in BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy across organizations drive the market in this region. As the region is technically advanced, the high adoption of web filtering solutions is fuelling market growth.
• The rise in internet penetration and the need for enterprises to reduce the misuse of the internet are majorly driving the market. Rising adoption of cloud-based services across the region is also boosting the web filtering market growth.
• For instance, according to Internet World Stats, in 2019, close to 312 million internet users accessed the web from the United States, up from nearly 287 million in 2017. As of 2019, internet users in North America used an average of 3 hours and 57 minutes online through mobile, compared to only 2 hours and 33 minutes of regular non-mobile internet use. Moreover, there were 132.9 mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in the United States.
• Due to the growing usage of banking sectors, cloud computing, and expanding retail and increasing importance of regulatory compliance, the web filtering market in North America is anticipated to grow in the coming years.
• In the global web filtering market, North America is supposed to have the most significant market size due to the presence of a vast number of conspicuous web filtering vendors. Some of the important players in the region are Symantec Corporation, McAfee, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Palo Alto Networks, Inc., Fortinet, Forcepoint, and Barracuda Networks, Inc., among others.

Competitive Landscape

The Web Filtering Market is moderately competitive and consists of several major players. The market is highly cost-intensive and requires a substantial initial investment for installation and implementation operations. The industry is presumed to witness several mergers and acquisitions, with companies taking active measures to gain market share and enhance their product portfolio. Some of the major players of the market are Cisco Systems, Inc., McAfee, Inc., Palo Alto Networks, Inc., Fortinet, Trend Micro Inc., Barracuda Networks, Inc., Zscaler, and Trustwave Holdings, among others.

• July 2020 - McAfee, announced McAfee Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) Cloud, a new cloud-based security and information event management (SIEM) offering that supports the detection, incident response, and threat hunting activities of a security operations team.
• June 2020 - ElevenPaths, the cybersecurity unit of Telefónica Tech, and Fortinet, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, announced the expansion of their collaboration to offer new managed security services for industrial sector customers to provide advanced security for their operation technology (OT), information technology (IT) and Internet of Things (IoT) environments.

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