Narayan AmmachchiThe Latin American biometrics market will grow 23.7% from 2013 through 2018, according to the latest report from Research and Markets. New companies are entering the market through acquisition, while existing ones are broadening their offerings to gain a larger slice of the market.
The market is being driving by the increased adoption of biometric solutions by governments concerned by the growing rate of terror threats and economic fraud. “Governments are increasingly investing in biometrics to upgrade and enhance their security infrastructure so that they can protect people, prevent loss of confidential data, and secure security installations,” the report noted.
Not all firms are dependent on government agencies to expand their growth; several companies are trying to sell their solutions to small and medium sized businesses.
The research firm says new apps are “transforming” the market, with U.S. tech giants such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook acquiring smaller firms to expand their activity in the region. Smaller firms are gaining a foothold in the market by winning copyrights on key platforms.
“Fragmentation of the industry continues to attract new entrants seeking to acquire platforms, scale upward, or enhance market share through acquisition of smaller firms,” the research firm noted.
Nevertheless, the availability of inexpensive non-biometric technologies is slowing the growth of the market in some countries. Large companies are often opting for low-cost solutions, the report added.
The research firm claims to have assessed the business of companies including 3M Cogent, Lumidigm, BIO-key, Safran SA, Cross Match, DigitalPersona, Aware, NEC, Cognitec and ZKTeco among many others.
In Argentina and Brazil, biometric technologies are playing a key role in detecting banking and pension fund frauds, while Mexico is using fingerprint technology to crack down on criminal syndicates.
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