Drone Data Services Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Service Type (Mapping & Surveying, Photogrammetry, 3D Modeling), By Platform, By End-Use, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025

Industry Insights

The global drone data services market size was estimated at USD 152.1 million in 2016. The market growth is attributed to the increasing need for drone information analysis amongst businesses worldwide to perform various critical tasks remotely, such as automated mapping, cadastral surveying, corridor surveying, volumetric calculations, and LiDAR mapping.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) imagery service providers have been offering innovative opportunities for businesses in construction & agriculture industries and widening their potential application base to enable predictive and actuation capabilities. These capabilities offer significant advantages, such as quality improvements, risk mitigation, and cost reduction, thereby providing a competitive advantage to adopters.

Germany drone data services market, by type, 2014 - 2025 (USD Million)

Drones and their sensors provide a significant amount of data to companies, thereby multiplying applications and capabilities within their business processes. The analysis of the obtained information substantially improves predictive/preventive maintenance and operational intelligence. Companies are now increasingly adopting data management platforms to process and analyze information for detecting and classifying notable events and creating reports.

Drone data service providers are expected to gain prominence by empowering companies globally to utilize UAV’s imagery in a better way, which can be achieved by converting it into actionable information in the form of simple 3D models, Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), and orthomosaic maps. An increasing number of companies are now seeking to enter the UAV software space and develop software to provide aerial imagery analysis and mapping solutions for the commercial sector.

Companies such as Parrot SA and 3D Robotics have made a conscious decision to transform their business from manufacturing UAVs to developing UAV software. Moreover, 3D Robotics has now emerged as a company that is exclusively involved in the development of UAV software and provides drone imagery services for civil engineering, construction, and mapping & surveying applications.

Service Type Insights

The four primary types analyzed in the report include mapping & surveying, photogrammetry, 3D modeling & DEM, others. Others include volume measurements, change detection, spectral imaging, and object recognition. Mapping & Surveying accounted for the largest market share in 2016 and is poised to remain the dominating service type over the forecast period.

Land surveyors and mapping service providers are increasingly using drones to augment their resources of measuring instruments, which in turn creates a large amount of information that requires analysis. The geo-referencing digital images obtained by drones provide precise data with a higher-resolution of 1.5 cm per pixel.

Businesses across the world are increasingly using drones across a wide range of industries. In agriculture, farmers are utilizing maps generated with drone software to identify areas of damage & crop variation and aid in diagnosing the potential causes for damages, such as pests, equipment malfunctioning, irrigation problems, and prescribe solutions such as variable-rate nitrogen applications.

End-use Insights

Various industries analyzed in the study include real estate & construction, agriculture, mining, and others. Real estate & construction is presumed to emerge as the dominant end-use industry over the forecast period. Drones are increasingly being used in construction sites to accomplish the goal in a faster and cheaper way without risking human life.

The analysis of construction activities, which utilizes images acquired through drones, is expected to emerge as a lucrative application area for drones. Businesses in the real estate & construction industry are now able to imprint construction plans onto the UAV acquired real-time information. This is carried out by superimposing building plans, which are created using architectural and planning software and overlapping them on the orthomosaic of the whole site.

The application in precision agriculture has witnessed substantial growth over the last few years. Farmers are using images acquired by UAVs to gather real-time feedback and analyze the results regarding plant health, crop yields, and other data. Drones provide greater precision, cheaper imaging, and prior detection of problems due to total-field scouting and frequent index-reporting as compared to their counterparts. Agriculture drone data software is used to merge the geotagged imagery into a large mosaic and treated to interpret the amount of light, which is reflected in distinct wavelengths.

Platform Insights

Based on platforms, the drone data services market has been bifurcated into cloud-based and operator software. At present, the drone industry appears to be rich with a wide range of UAV imagery-based services. The industry comprises various cloud-based services that are packaged together with drones, such as SiteScan, Kespry, and Aerotas. On the other hand, there are numerous server and desktop-based data analytic solutions, such as Pix4D, SimActive, and Drone2Map. Both platforms form an integral part of the overall market.

Global drone data services market, by platform, 2016 (%)

Cloud-based UAV data services are expected to witness the fastest growth over the next eight years. These services extend the power of aerial images by leveraging a growing suite of third-party applications within their interfaces on both mobile as well as desktop devices, thereby making it easy for the businesses to sum up, analyze, and share the information within their organization.

The implementation of cloud computing technology has been a key milestone in the industry. The benefits associated with the utilization of cloud-based UAV imagery services, such as real-time optimized operations, are enabling businesses to shift to cloud technology. These services utilize a virtualized platform that is beneficial for a scalable environment.

Regional Insights

North America accounted for the largest market share in 2016 and is presumed to retain dominance over the forecast period. The regional growth can be attributed to the increasing adoption in civil aerospace and the rising demand for drones for business purposes. The region's commercial sectors, particularly in the U.S., are experiencing an increasing demand for high-quality and real-time data along with favorable changes in the regulations about the use of such devices in business processes.

The European market was valued at over USD 40 million in 2016 and is expected to witness substantial growth over the forecast period. The regional UAV market is regulated by the inconsistent and confusing patchwork of national regulations. This uncertainty has led to an increase in the number of UAV operators across the region, which in turn is driving the demand for drone-data based analytical services amongst businesses across the region.

Poised to grow at a CAGR of over 60% throughout the forecast period, Asia Pacific is expected to emerge as the fastest-growing regional market over the next eight years. This growth is attributed to the growth in the commercial sector and enhancements in policy framework about the use of drones in commercial applications.

Drone Data Services Market Share Insights

Drone data services are a dynamic industry that is poised to witness significant growth shortly with a growing number of players entering the market over the next few years. The industry is witnessing a rising surge in the entrance of new companies and young startups scaling across the boards. Manufacturers and service providers are now moving away from their conventional business processes and focusing their efforts toward the development of imagery data-based intelligent software. The key companies analyzed in the report include PrecisionHawk, DroneDeploy, DroneCloud, 4DMapper, Sentera, LLC, Pix4D, Skycatch, Inc., Dronifi, Airware, and Agribotix LLC.

Report Scope 

Segments Covered in the report

This report forecasts revenue growth at global, regional, and country levels and provides an analysis of the industry trends in each of the sub-segments from 2014 to 2025. For this study, Grand View Research has segmented the global drone data services market based on type, platform, end-use, and region:

• Service Type Outlook (USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • Mapping & Surveying

  • Photogrammetry

  • 3D Modeling & Digital Elevation Model (DEM)

  • Others

• Platform Outlook (USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • Cloud-Based

  • Operator Software

• End-Use Outlook (USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • Real Estate & Construction

  • Agriculture

  • Mining

  • Others

• Regional Outlook (USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • North America

    • The U.S.

    • Canada

  • Europe

    • Germany

    • UK

  • Asia Pacific

    • China

    • Japan

  • The Middle East & Africa (MEA)

  • Latin America