COVID drives explosive market growth of digital identity

COVID-driven acceleration of digital transformation has intensified the need for secure, reliable and trusted digital identity.

Citizen and consumer embrace of “digital first” and “digital only” in the wake of pandemic safety concerns and restrictions has opened the floodgates of digitally enabled fraud.

Biometric face verification and liveness detection are being widely deployed to address this unprecedented digital security threat quickly becoming synonymous with secure remote digital onboarding, according to new research from Acuity Market Intelligence.

“Biometric face verification and liveness detection are critical components of remote digital onboarding solutions,” explains Maxine Most, Principal at Acuity Market Intelligence.

“Face verification matches a face image captured at onboarding to an image from a trusted credential such as a driver’s license or passport, or from a government identity or credential database. Liveness detection ensures a live person is present while submitting their face image and is not attempting to mask or conceal their true identity via any number of spoofing or presentation attacks.”

With global projections for identity verification revenues to reach between $15 and $18 billion annually by 2024, there is clearly massive room for growth in the face verification and liveness for remote digital onboarding market. And the analysis found rapid growth is happening now:

• 88{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} of the vendors process less than 50 million transactions annually today

• 50{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} are experiencing 100{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} year-on-year transaction volume growth

• 62{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} of vendors have annual revenues of less than $10 million, with the remaining 38{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} ranging between $10 and $100 million

• 46{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} also report at least 100{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} annual revenue growth rate

• 96{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} of vendors count financial institutions a key sector followed by FinTech, government, the sharing economy, e-commerce and retail round out the most dominant sectors.

“With global identity verification revenues projected to reach $15 to $18 billion annually by 2024, there is clearly room for explosive growth and our analysis shows this growth is happening now,” continues Most.

“The market landscape is being shaped by a range of innovators. From biometric core technology suppliers, to digital onboarding solution providers, to identity verification platform players, to the big biometric platform players, everyone wants in.

The market is heating up as the stakes couldn’t be higher. Rapid deployment is also critical. Customers expect and vendors deliver the vast majority of remote digital onboarding solutions within two weeks.  And while SaaS is the preferred delivery vehicle, most vendors offer on premise options, with nearly half providing face verification and liveness testing on-device.”