A market research made by IBISWorld, one of America's most trusted independent source of industry and market research, named the Voice over IP (VoIP) Industry best-performing industry of the past decade (2000-2009). This means that the VoIP industry has known the greatest growth of all industries, including the search engine industry – imagine the noise Google and Bing made – and even online dating.
The percentage by which the VoIP industry has grown is astounding: 179, 035.8 %, a figure more than a hundred times bigger than that of the runner up, the search engines industry. VoIP is a new industry, which officially came on the market in 2002. Since then, the exponential growth due to massive adoption worldwide gave this astronomical figure.
IBISWorld forecasts that VoIP will still be the best-performing industry in the coming decade (2010-2019), where a more realistic and linear percentage is forecast: 149.6 %. This seems logical when we think of the momentum that the industry has taken and of the full development potential that lies ahead. Besides, there are a bunch of other growing and healthy industries that go hand-in-hand with the VoIP industry, and that will be an important element for the upward push.
The benefits attached to using VoIP lie behind the astronomical growth of the industry, but I think those factors that have mostly contributed to that are
- VoIP's ability to dramatically cut down the cost of communication, making it free in many ways.
- VoIP's adaptability with other modern technologies, which gives it an advantage over the traditional PSTN phone system. For example, VoIP blends nicely with wireless technologies like Wi-Fi, 3G and WiMax to provide mobile voice connectivity, and it owes much to that for its success. And vice-versa.
- VoIP's interesting features that enrich and empower communication.
- VoIP ability to blend with other means of communication and integrate into Unified Communications.
Note also (see table below) that in the Top 10 list of best-performing industries of the decade, there are industries that also have a role as auxiliary industries to VoIP. eCommerce, Dating and Matchmaking, and Wireless Telecommunications, all depend on an important thing: communication, mostly in the form of voice calls. VoIP offers that, and very often for free. Skype is one of those services that have revolutionized the VoIP industry, and thanks to it, nearly half a billion people worldwide can make free international calls.
George Van Horn, senior analyst with IBISWorld, said while commenting on the report, "VoIP has skyrocketed from nonexistent to a massive application targeting telecom carriers' voice revenues." He also termed VoIP as the "primary beneficiary of the next leg in telecom's service development cycle."
The top 10 best-performing industries for the last decade:
| Rank | Industry | Growth |
| 1 | Voice Over IP (VoIP) | 179, 035.8 % |
| 2 | Search Engines | 1,655 % |
| 3 | eCommerce & Online Auctions | 468.9 % |
| 4 | Online Dating & Matchmaking | 248.8 % |
| 5 | Tank & Armored Vehicle Manufacturing | 244.7 % |
| 6 | Petrochemical Manufacturing | 221.2 % |
| 7 | Mining Support | 186.7 % |
| 8 | Wireless Telecommunications Carriers | 183.4 % |
| 9 | Biotechnology | 182.1 % |
| 10 | Warehouse Clubs and Supercenters | 146.5 % |
