Charting the Asia-Pacific Call-Centre Services Market

By Cindy Payne, Managing Director
Asia-Pacific Connections Pte Ltd

July 2002

International Data Corporation (IDC) sized the global call-centre services marketplace in 2001 at US$37.6 billion, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.4% between 2000 and 2004. The U.S. owns 53% of the pie, followed by Western Europe with 28%, Japan with 4% and the rest of Asia-Pacific with 4%. The Asia-Pacific call-centre services marketplace in 2001 was valued at US$1.4 billion, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 28% until 2006, when it is expected to reach almost US$5 billion. Whilst Australia is expected to remain the largest market for call-centre services within the region, China is poised to register the highest growth with a CAGR of 49%, followed by India with a 42% CAGR for the same period.

Most of the call centres in Asia-Pacific currently offer a wide variety of call-centre services. KPMG Consulting defines call-centre services as a generic term that covers everything from highly trained operators responding to telephone calls to the outsourcing of back-office work – such as the confirmation of airline tickets, processing of medical transcriptions, as well as insurance and credit-card claims. Call centres have proven to be a valuable means of increasing revenue in credit-card processing, billing and debt collection; retail banking; telemarketing; mail-order shopping; hospitality help desks and telecom services.

In comparison, China's call-centre services market was valued at US$96 million in 2001 and will grow at a CAGR of 49% to reach US$699 million in 2006. As the fastest-growing economy in the world, China is a prime target for multinationals in search of growth in a depressed global economy. According to industry analysts, Frost & Sullivan, the drivers behind the growth of the Chinese call-centre services industry will include:

Explosive growth in the telecommunications-services market
Reduced telephone-service tariffs
Reduced call-centre-equipment cost
An increasing demand for call centres by local Chinese companies – especially in the banking and finance sector – facing increased competition as foreign companies raise the bar on customer service

China is also becoming increasingly attractive as an outsourced call-centre site to Japanese multinationals seeking to take advantage of China's cheaper manpower costs, lower real-estate costs and close proximity to Japan.

India is also one of the fastest-growing outsourced call-centre-services markets in the world, and is expected to grow from US$277 million in 2001 to reach US$1.59 billion by 2006. However, unlike China, the growth of the Indian call-centre-services market will be driven primarily by overseas multinationals outsourcing their call-centre requirements, since India's population does not currently have the spending power of the Chinese. Whilst India's 27.2 million fixed-line telephone network is the one of the largest in the world, teledensity in the subcontinent remains low – only 2.6% of the population has access to a telephone. To compete as a global player, India must address infrastructure bottlenecks such as the lack of bandwidth, low-speed leased lines and slow service. The infrastructure investment needed to ensure that India reaches its full potential as an outsourcing hub will cost an estimated US$106 billion. A wide range of communications services will be upgraded including cellular, Internet, radio trunking, global-mobile personal communication by satellite (GMPCS) and other value-added services. Once infrastructure issues are resolved, India's key advantages in the global call-centre-services industry will include the availability of a large pool of highly educated English-speaking talent and ample, cheap office space in key business districts.

In the final analysis, when considering a call-centre investment, operators and companies should concentrate on maximising customer retention, not cost savings. Whilst the relatively mature call-centre-service markets of Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia (with CAGRs of 21%, 19% and 14% respectively) have an initial high-wage and land-cost base, they also have a mature pool of trained people, with efficient processes and infrastructure in place. As companies concentrate on building relationships with their customers and adding value to those relationships, locating call centres in less-developed countries to take advantage of relatively low wage and land costs, may not be a prudent investment in the long run.