Business Process Outsourcing - Industry Size

Industry Size

India has revenues of US$10.9 billion from offshore BPO and US$30 billion from IT and total BPO (expected in FY 2008). India thus has some 5-6% share of the total BPO Industry, but a commanding 63% share of the offshore component. This 63% is a drop from the 70% offshore share that India enjoyed last year: despite the industry growing 38% in India last year, other locations like Philippines, and South Africa have emerged to take a share of the market. The South African call center industry has grown by approximately 8% per year since 2003 and it directly employs about 54 000 people, contributing 0.92% to South Africa's gross domestic product(GDP). China is also trying to grow from a very small base in this industry. However, while the BPO industry is expected to continue to grow in India, its market share of the offshore piece is expected to decline. Important centers in India are Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Patna, Trivandrum, Bhubaneswar and New Delhi. In fact, the Philippines has overtaken India as the largest call center industry in the world in 2010.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) countries, along with the People's Republic of China and India—known collectively as ACI countries—are likely to see services like BPO figure strongly in their economies over the medium term. Services trade among ACI countries has been growing at a very rapid rate over recent years, despite starting from a relatively low baseline. Although data are scarce and must be interpreted with caution, an analysis of applied services sector policies in the region suggests there is much policymakers can do to intensify this process, and increase the pace at which the transformation to a service economy is taking place.