The secured and verified transactions offered by digital signatures can be advantageous to the increasing number of digital businesses. Rising demand for electronic commerce and paperless procedures is expected to drive the market. It helps businesses, including those in the retail, BFSI, healthcare, government, IT, and telecommunications sectors, cut operational costs. Its adoption gives companies in all industries a competitive edge. The market for digital signatures is also likely to grow due to stronger government support.
Digital documents have an advantage in security and data protection because they have electronic copies of the originals and multiple levels of encryption and security to protect them. Electronic document forgery is less serious than most assume due to advancements in signature authentication software over time. Businesses now must support a workforce that is more widely dispersed geographically as a result of remote work and hybrid work models. As part of their organizational culture's digital transformation, businesses are now experimenting with e-signatures, which is what is fueling the market's growth.
The market for digital signatures has grown at an unprecedented rate in recent years. The use of inorganic growth strategies by IT companies to establish themselves as suppliers of solutions and services for digital signatures that are advantageous from a competitive standpoint has increased significantly. These tactics consist of alliances, contracts, and purchases. The significant players use a variety of inorganic strategies to keep up their competitiveness in the digital signature market, according to the most recent trends. The demand for digital signature products and services is one of the main issues for businesses prioritizing security. Therefore, there are many opportunities for digital signature service providers to market and sell their goods and services.
Asia-Pacific is the most significant contributor and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 32.50% during the forecast period. China has tiered electronic signature regulations, in contrast to other countries with permissive/minimalist or prospective electronic signature laws. The law uses a two-tiered system allowing virtual, electronic, and digital signatures. The Electronic Signature Law of the People's Republic of China was also modeled after a combination of the European Union directive, the United Nations Convention on Electronic Communications, and the UNCITRAL Model Law. Some national judges have hesitated to support the legitimacy of electronic signatures. Due to this, there is an increased demand for advanced digital signatures on highly sensitive documents. In addition, China mainly uses e-signature technology for employee contracts, NDAs, privacy notices, employee invention agreements, benefits paperwork, and new employee onboarding documents during the HR process.
Europe is expected to grow at a CAGR of 28.14% during the forecast period. Electronic signatures increased significantly during the stay-at-home stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Since many pre-pandemic processes required a physical distance, actual signatures were frequently replaced by electronic ones. This includes real estate transactions, sales contracts, and even formal documents like onboarding contracts for new hires. Due to people's growing comfort level with them, electronic signatures will likely remain high and increase in the future. To guide the legal prerequisites for e-signing platforms in all UK jurisdictions and the practicalities of doing so, CMS published its most recent publication in November 2020. As more organizations adopt industry 4.0 standards and transition from paper documentation to paperless transactions, it is necessary to electronically sign documents to ensure their integrity and to provide proof of the signer's acceptance.
The global e-signature platform market’s major key players are DocuSign Inc., Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd, Adobe Inc., Signeasy (esign), Pandadoc Inc., Hellosign Inc. (hello sign Api), Airslate Inc. (signnow), Yousign, Silanis-esignlive (onespan Inc.), and RightSignature (Citrix Systems).