Business Trends in Geo-Spatial Information and Service Market

NASA's remote sensing market analysis and forecast projects 3.3 billion dollars in 2005. On the other hand, a market research firm expected that world commercial remote sensing imagery, GIS software, Data, and value-added services will generate 8.3 billion dollar in 2007. It has been widely believed that geo-spatial information and service market is growing rapidly and has a huge potential, but it is not clearly understood where it is now and will be heading in the future. Also, it could be a significant question to answer where the industry in Korea fits the best in the world business trends and where it should be strategically heading to take a large market share. Furthermore, if it could be worth being considered as a Korean strategic industry for the future. Instead of pursuing direct answers to the questions, the author will start reviewing general business practices, major business transactions such as merging and acquisitions (M&A's) and initial public offerings (IPO's), and research on market capitalization and revenue of major companies. Throughout the study, a list of common grounds in the market was uncovered and realized as follows: (1) value-added data matters in geo-spatial information and service market; (2) private sector grows faster; (3) characteristics of multi-national industry; and (4) Dependency on major industry. Based on the findings, the author presents a list of recommendations as conclusions.