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M2 Research recently updated its bellwether forecast for Gamification Industry revenues, projecting aggregate spending of $2.6Bn by 2016 in the US, climbing from $242m in 2012. Revenues among the leading gamification platform providers are set to approximately double per year from 2011 to 2016. Wanda Meloni, lead analyst and CEO at M2 will further analyze this data and present entirely new findings at GSummit in June.
One of the more intriguing elements of M2’s report is on enterprise gamification – or the use of game mechanics that face internal processes and employees. Though common estimates put enterprise gamification at approximately 50% of all activity in the market, vendors today only account for roughly 25% of spending according to M2. This is in sharp contrast to the marketing vertical where platforms like Badgeville, BunchBall and BigDoor are perceived to have upwards of 85% participation. The unaccounted for segments are mostly comprised of DIY solutions, built internally to solve specific business needs – often without the benefit of formal gamification training.
Although the core design techniques in enterprise and consumer gamification are mostly identical, they are perceived very differently inside most organizations. Vendors typically sell consumer gamification to marketing, product and community-management executives. Enterprise projects tend to channel through Human Resources, Training, IT or Finance groups looking to improve existing processes. This bifurcation is allowing some vendors to “double-dip”, entering companies via one track and then selling their platform a second time when the other group becomes gamification-aware.