Abstract
This IDC study (which is a translation of the Japanese
report IDC #J9330102), estimates the size of the Japan corporate
elearning market from 2007 to 2008 and presents a forecast
for 2009 to 2013. eLearning among companies in Japan has
expanded steadily on the back of the demand for compliance
education; however, system usage fees and the pressure on falling
prices have increased with a continuous downward trend of content
prices and the widespread use of software as a service
(SaaS)/application service provisioning (ASP) models. Although the Japan elearning market
will continue to expand steadily, IDC believes that the growth
rate will decrease gradually and that the market will approach
maturity. Due to the impact from the global economic crisis,
IDC expects the year-over-year (YoY) growth rate to decline in
2009 and 2010. Cutbacks on employee education/training expenses will lead
to a curtailment of elearning spending; however, as a shift
from classroom-based training to elearning is gaining momentum due to
the curtailment of expenses, IDC forecasts that the elearning market
will maintain a positive growth despite the impact from the
economic crisis.
As the market matures, vendors are reexamining the positioning
of their elearning business. One direction is to transcend the
boundary of elearning and shift to strategic human resource (HR)
consulting. The other direction is to position elearning as part
of the outsourcing business and specialize the operation of elearning
systems. "Vendors should focus on strategic HR consulting and the
development of SaaS/ASP business model and strive to create new
market opportunities," analyzes Mimei Ito, research manager, IT Services, IDC
Japan.
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