Facial Recognition Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Technology (2D, 3D), By Application (Emotion Recognition, Attendance Tracking & Monitoring), By End Use, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027

Report Overview

The global facial recognition market size was valued at USD 3.4 billion in 2019 and is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 14.5% from 2020 to 2027. The technology is improving, evolving, and expanding at an explosive rate. Technologies such as biometrics are extensively used in order to enhance security. They are used across various applications, such as access control and attendance tracking. The biometrics are universal, unique, and measurable and thus can be used to provide security solutions.

There are various types of biometrics technology used today, such as fingerprint, iris recognition, face recognition, and speech recognition. The facial recognition technology is a type of image recognition technology that has gained wide acceptance over the years. This technology leverages a connected or digital camera to detect faces in the captured images and then quantify the features of the image to match against the templates stored in the database. This technology is very versatile with its usage and therefore is rapidly being by various end users.

Increasing adoption of the technology across various applications is a driving force for the market growth. In security, the border authorities are using the technology to verify the traveler’s identity, especially in airports. The law enforcement agencies are also using the face recognition software to scan faces captured in the CCTV and find the targeted person. Another application where the technology has gained prominent adoption is in smartphones. In smartphones, the software finds application in unlocking the phone, signing into mobile apps, and in payment verification.

Rising adoption of the technology by the law enforcement sector is substantially contributing the market growth. For instance, In January 2020, Moscow city announced the use of live facial recognition cameras provided by NtechLab, an artificial intelligence algorithms developer. The police in the city would be using facial recognition to search for suspects on a live camera. The software would notify police when a match is found.

Technology Insights

On the basis of technology, the facial recognition market is segmented into 2D, 3D, and facial analytics. The 2D segment is expected to cater moderate market share in 2019. Earlier, the face recognition software used a 2D image to match a similar image from the database. This technology requires the person to be looking directly at the camera with minimal variance in order to be accurate and effective. The inaccuracy in various conditions, such as varying environmental circumstances, angles, and expression, have limited its usage.  

To eliminate this difficulty, vendors in the market focused on launching 3D models that could provide more accuracy. In the 3D recognition, a real-time image of a face is captured and then processed using a cloud database. Since the 3D technology can be used in darkness as well and can recognize objects at various view angles; therefore, its adoption is rising, thereby catering to high CAGR in the market. Emerging technologies such as facial analytics and cloud-based solutions are expected to favor market growth. Facial analytics includes detailed analysis of various features of human’s face such as surface texture analysis, and local feature analysis. This technology has high accuracy and detection efficiency and is therefore increasingly being used in retail, education and research, and police services to determine the changed attributes such as age, gender, and other facial characteristics.

Application Insights

On the basis of application, the market is segmented into emotion recognition, attendance tracking and monitoring, access control, security and surveillance, and others. An increasing rate of terrorism and crime has led to wider adoption of the technology in the security and surveillance sector, thereby catering high growth rate in the market. With the help of powerful tracking tools, the security agents can track criminals walking on streets by integrating the facial recognition technology into the video surveillance network. The technology also helps in easy detecting and prevention of crime, thereby driving its adoption.

The access control segment catered to the highest share in 2019. This is due to a rising number of companies focusing on enhancing their access control systems. For instance, In November 2019, Precise Biometrics, an authentication product provider, announced new product enhancement. The company announced the integration of liveness detection capabilities into physical access control systems based on facial recognition. Such enhancements are driving the adoption of the technology for access control systems thereby generating higher revenues.

End-use Insights

Based on end use, the market is segmented into retail and e-commerce, media and entertainment, BFSI, automobile and transportation, telecom and IT, government, healthcare, and others. The healthcare segment is anticipated to cater highest growth rate in the forecast period. The healthcare sector has been rapidly adopting face recognition in order to enhance their efficacy and increase security. In order to eliminate duplicate medical records, the medical centers are focusing on linking medical data with their patient’s pictures, thereby securing medical records. This will also help them to quickly access the records by just scanning their face and finding the linked data. Apart from this, integration of the technology in CCTV camera can help healthcare centers to introduce patients to their care teams on arrival, as well as to notify patients.  

The government sector is estimated to cater moderate growth in the forecast period owing to demand in law enforcement and security. Owing to non-intrusive nature of the technology, it is also used for covert monitoring by the governmental agencies. This technology is widely used in banking and finance to counter frauds, thereby catering to substantial share in the market. This technology is also used in the retail and e-commerce segment for enhancing their sales. For instance, In June 2019, e-commerce companies, Jingdong JD.com, and Alibaba.com announced that they would combine the facial recognition technology with sales data. This will help the company to understand targeted sales behavior and better resource allocation.

Regional Insights

The adoption of technology is increasing across Asia Pacific, leading to high CAGR in the forecast period. This technology is being widely used in developing countries such as India in order to solve investigation cases. For instance, in April 2018, face recognition was used by Indian police force in New Delhi, to identify children who have been lost or kidnapped. It was used on approximately 45,000 children throughout the city out of which around 3000 were found missing.

Several countries in Asia Pacific are taking initiatives to generate electronic ID generation of individuals. Initiatives such as the e-KTP project in Indonesia and the UIDAI project in India are creating new opportunities for market penetration in the region. The North America market for facial recognition is expected to cater to high share over the forecast period. This is due to the rising adoption of technology in various departments such as homeland security, justice, defense, amongst others across U.S. Key European markets of U.K., France, Germany are expected to drive the regional market considerably over the forecast period.

Facial Recognition Market Share Insights

The key market participants Aware, Inc.; FacePhi.; NEC Corporation; IDEMIA; TECH5; Onfido; Ayonix Corporation; Gemalto NV; Cognitec Systems GmbH; Precise Biometrics; NtechLab; and Fujitsu. Continuous R&D to offer product differentiation is expected to be the key success factor for the market participants. Companies such as Ayonix Corporation specializes in dealing with real-time face recognition with the use of IP cameras to identify suspects in public locations and VIP customers in sectors such as banking, hospitality, and retail. Some vendors are also focusing on collaboration and acquisitions to enhance their product offerings thereby helping them to gain a competitive edge.

Report Scope

Segments Covered in the Report

This report forecasts revenue growth at global, regional, and country levels and provides an analysis of the latest industry trends in each of the sub-segments from 2016 to 2027. For the purpose of this study, Grand View Research has segmented the global facial recognition market report based on technology, application, end use, and region:

• Technology Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

  • 2D

  • 3D

  • Facial Analytics

• Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

  • Emotion Recognition

  • Attendance Tracking and Monitoring

  • Access Control

  • Security & Surveillance

  • Others

• End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

  • Retail & E-commerce

  • Media & Entertainment

  • BFSI

  • Automobile & Transportation

  • Telecom & IT

  • Government

  • Healthcare

  • Others

• Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

  • North America

    • U.S.

    • Canada

    • Mexico

  • Europe

    • Germany

    • U.K.

    • France

  • Asia Pacific

    • China

    • Japan

    • India

  • South America

    • Brazil

  • Middle East and Africa