Providers
Worldwide, the certificate authority business is fragmented, with national or regional providers dominating their home market. This is because many uses of digital certificates, such as for legally binding digital signatures, are linked to local law, regulations, and accreditation schemes for certificate authorities.
However, the market for SSL certificates, a kind of certificate used for website security, is largely held by a small number of multinational companies. This market has significant barriers to entry since new providers must undergo annual security audits (such as WebTrust for Certification Authorities) to be included in the list of web browser trusted authorities. More than 50 root certificates are trusted in the most popular web browser versions. A W3Techs survey from November 2012 shows Symantec (which owns VeriSign, Thawte and Geotrust) with 42.9% market share, Comodo with 26%, GoDaddy with 14%, and GlobalSign with 7.7%. A 2011 market share report from Net Craft as of January of that year determined that Symantec has a 41.6% share of the certification services provider market, followed by GoDaddy (28.68%), Comodo (15.34%) and GlobalSign (2.81%).
Read more about this topic: Certificate Authority
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