Research on the open-source market in France and Europe

Commissioned by the CNLL, Numeum and Systematic and conducted by Markess, the study on the open-source market shows the progression of open solutions in both public and private organizations.

The omnipresence of open-source

You may not know this, but open-source is everywhere, and not only in software-stamped open-source. This concept appeared in 1998 to remove the risk of amalgamation with “free software”, open-source makes it possible to identify projects designed with open code while reminding users that software has a cost and is therefore not necessarily free.

Maybe you use Google, Facebook, or Netflix? Not only do open-source components hide in numbers in these tools, as in many other platforms, but they are also among the world’s biggest contributors to open technologies! This shows the preponderant place that open-source has taken since its appearance nearly 25 years ago.
With collaboration leading to innovation, the number of contributors in the world continues to grow, with Europe surpassing the United States.

Study on the open-source market in France and Europe 

Ever stronger growth in open technologies

The study shows the dynamism of the market. The confidence of public administrations and private companies remains strong and the market continues to develop strongly under the influence of the European Commission which supports this technological choice.
With a market multiplied by 40 in less than 20 years, France remains the locomotive of the open-source growth, representing today 5.9Mds of euros. 

This global amount contains both software and service revenue. Together, they account for 11% of total sector revenues and offer a growth perspective of around 7.8% per year over the next five years. 
This is a very optimistic figure when we know that the rest of the sector expects growth of only 6.3% per year.

Growth is also reversed in the two segments, depending on whether we consider the share of open-source growth and the rest: where the software sector has a larger growth in the IT sector with a cumulation of 7%, and digital services for 6%; open-source shows a growth projection of 6.1% in software and 8% in digital services.

Adoption of open-source solutions can combine several factors, including:
- cost reduction, 
- strategic leverage, 
- the ease of collaboration 
- skills development.

At the same time, these advantages are increasingly supported by national policies within the various European countries, which contribute to the overall dynamism of the open world.

Open-source, a sector that confirms its recruitment ambitions

Of course, this growth gives rise to a virtuous effect on employment. The estimated growth brings with it a significant need for new talent, which will have to be trained to meet the forecast creation of +26,400 jobs. This poses a real fundamental subject on the policy to be put in place to allow this arrival of skills, the IT stream being already in a skills shortage. Open-source has many and varied positions to fill, such as developers, tech leads, DevOps profiles, architects, or business consultants.

"The companies in the sector have been calling for an industrial policy for a long time to make it an asset in a strategy to regain European digital sovereignty. Among the measures we are waiting for: a proactive procurement policy from the public sector; dedicated funding that takes into account business models specific to free software; pro-competitive measures that limit the ability of dominant players to lock in the market at the expense of SMEs; Strengthened requirements around open standards; a dedicated training policy,” concludes Stéfane Fermigier, NLDC Co-Chair.
 

Download the study (French for now, English coming soon):

https://www.cnll.fr/
https://www.numeum.fr/
https://www.systematic-paris-region.org/