In its research report, “Earth Observation Data & Services Market,” Euroconsult provides in-depth analysis of Earth Observation (EO) satellite systems, commercial EO data, and the value-added services that contribute to the sector. With a global market projected to reach $8 billion by 2029, growth is expected to be driven by a mix of defense and new commercial markets, supported by the arrival of new constellation operators with low-cost solutions.
In 2019, the total value of the industry was $4.6 billion with the data market reaching $1.6 billion and value-added services (VAS) contributing $3 billion. Defense accounted for 64% of the data market, while environmental monitoring was the largest user of VAS.
The research addresses the demand dynamics for nine vertical markets, including: defense, infrastructure, environment, natural resource monitoring, energy, location-based services, disaster management, maritime and finance. It also provides analysis of the demand dynamics of eight regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Russia and CIS, Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania, Middle East and Africa. In addition, aggregated figures of the data market are also broken down by sensor type and resolution as well as by customer type: U.S. defense, non-U.S. defense, nondefense market.
More than 50 companies have announced their intention to develop Earth observing constellations, representing roughly 1,800 small satellites, the majority of which are under 50kg. This proliferation of new constellations results from a record year for fundraising in 2019, with more than $800 million invested. These new constellations will compete with the incumbent players for lower accuracy and higher revisit rate data which is expected to put pressure on pricing.
As data price points come down, especially for one-meter ground resolution that can be leveraged for value-added services, the data market is expected to slow, despite increased usage.
“The commercial data market is going beyond multispectral optical data with new constellations providing hyperspectral imagery and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR),” said Alexis Conte, Editor-in-Chief of the report and Senior Consultant at Euroconsult.
The report includes profiles of more than 20 commercial operators including optical, hyperspectral, SAR, GPS-RO, GHG monitoring and RF monitoring. It also addresses satellite as a service as well as ground service supply and the role of High-Altitude Platforms and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
“Our objective is to assess the demand for imagery and value-added products of satellite technologies,” said Mr. Conte. “We also considered aerial survey and field survey as remote sensing levers to estimate the evolution of the EO market and how these trends will progress over the next 10 years, including the development of supply, new entrant diversifying constellation projects, ecosystem evolution and new demand business models.
Euroconsult built up a complete and detailed bottom-up model based on the km² data acquired to support applications within the nine vertical markets identified in this research, and then by each of the eight regions. Further aspects are considered, such as the data type being procured and price evolutions in commercial data. It is supported by assessments of current commercial data providers’ performances and Euroconsult’s ongoing research in the EO sector, including interviews with stakeholders globally assessing the demand for vertical applications for each type of data and services and by geographical sector. For a review of the entire ecosystem, the research findings are derived from a dedicated database of more than 1,000 worldwide service companies. It has data on mergers, acquisitions and fundraising and includes details on payloads and sensor types.
It also considers end-user adoption, whether services are internalized or outsourced, thus generating commercial revenues. Euroconsult collected information on operators’ revenues and forecasted data and service prices taking into account further satellite supply with the arrival of constellations and new business models of consumption sharing information through web-platforms offering integrated turnkey services (revenue sharing, subscription).
In order to do a more in-depth analysis of the upstream and downstream value chain dynamics, this year Euroconsult is releasing two research products: “Earth Observation Data & Services Market,” focusing on the downstream part, and “Earth Observation Satellite Systems Market” focusing on the upstream and to be released at the end of November.
The research includes a greater focus on the SAR data market. The VAS market has been revised downwards for which the EO infrastructure part represented a significant share, the previous definition being undoubtedly too broad. New database developments have been performed such as mentioned above. Additionally, the research benchmarks value-added service supply, including platform as a service, web-portal analytics and monitoring services, and benchmarks current and future hyperspectral and SAR systems.