Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) development is taking place all around the globe. Countless organizations—particularly healthcare providers and contact centers across verticals—are now turning to the browser-based, open source WebRTC standard to streamline engagement with patients and customers.
WebRTC is making interaction far easier to implement, and more reliable, than it was during its nascent stage. Companies no longer have to go it alone when implementing open source WebRTC code into their websites and applications. Now, they can rely on the help of third-party companies offering platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solutions.
So, where is the most WebRTC innovation happening? Here are three countries that have emerged as global WebRTC hotspots:
Spain: All eyes are on Spain following the September 20th acquisition of Madrid’s Kurento by San Francisco unicorn Twilio.
Moving forward, Kurento will remain open source. Twilio is acquiring the majority of Kurento’s developers, who were previously working for a company called Naevtec. Twilio is also buying Kurento’s WebRTC SDK, elasticRTC.
Twilio, which has opened an office in Spain, will integrate Kurento media server’s technologies into Twilio Video. Kurento will enable transcoding, recording, media processing and large group calls.
Spain’s Telefónica Digital also made headlines recently when its real-time communications arm, TokBox, announced a breakthrough solution, “SIP Interconnect” that will enable contact centers to integrate WebRTC-powered media into websites and applications seamlessly.
These companies, along with Quobis, are some of the most prominent WebRTC solutions providers in Spain at this time.
The United States: WebRTC may be a global phenomenon, but it all started in the U.S. when Google released its open-source project back in 2011. Since then, WebRTC has been flourishing here.
So other than Twilio, which companies should you be following? Of course, there are the industry heavyweights to consider like Microsoft (Skype), Avaya (Zang), Cisco (Spark), Intel (Intel® CS for WebRTC) and Oracle (WebRTC Session Controller).
Genband is also hot right now, following the recent announcement that cloud contact center solutions provider Intelecom is using Genband’s WebRTC gateway in its core platform. And CafeX is another company that is worth looking into as well. Earlier this year, CafeX released the Chime platform which enables WebRTC communication across every browser with no downloads or transcoding needed.
Singapore: What Singapore’s WebRTC market lacks in depth, it makes up for with its growing fintech industry. In fact, 10 of the 15 most well-funded fintech startups in Asia are based out of “The Little Red Dot,” making this a very compelling market for WebRTC development. WebRTC and fintech, after all, go hand in hand. Browser-to-browser video banking is one of the most exciting use cases of WebRTC.
Leading the WebRTC charge in Singapore is Temasys, which provides real-time communications solutions for mobile and Web clients with its full platform-as-a-service for Embedded Real Time Communications. As part of its platform, Temasys provides secure recording and archiving, which is particularly useful for fintech and healthtech providers.
Wavecell is another Singapore-based company that claims to offer a global WebRTC platform with simple and powerful APIs.
And Asia is expected to be the fastest growing market for eCommerce and Internet usage in the next decade. The development of many of these services will happen in Asia, as well. We’ve seen WebRTC in the wild at conferences like Geeks On A Beach (Philippines) and JSConf.Asia (Singapore), already.
TADHack Global (14-16 Oct 2016) will have a Singapore location this year, where developers can learn and hack with real time interaction technology toolkits from a number of companies. Singapore is host to the largest cloud-computing and technology conferences in Asia, like Cloud Expo Asia (12-13 Oct 2016) and CommunicAsia (23-25 May 2017).
Edited by
Alicia Young
