Social and collaboration software is going to become a major recipient of enterprise software spending, with revenue in the market set to grow from $2.7 billion in 2018 to $4.8 billion by 2023.

Gartner Inc. said today in a new report that the expansion of collaboration apps into emerging markets and a growing base of knowledge workers hoping to stay engaged will be the main drivers of growth. It based this theory in part on the results of its recent Digital Worker Survey of 7,261 enterprise workers, which found that 58% use real-time messaging tools and 45% use social media for work purposes on a daily basis.

What’s more, there will likely be some headaches in store as Gartner says there will be no clear winners in what is becoming an increasingly fragmented market. It believes most collaboration software companies will remain focused on narrow use cases, even as they layer in more features such as analytics, team management and virtual personal assistants.

That means enterprises will instead have to manage whole portfolios of collaboration applications and services. Challenges will include preventing silos and integrating key platforms such as Slack, Microsoft Teams and Google Hangouts.

“While decision makers still want a foundational platform, there is acceptance that no single vendor can address it all,” said Craig Roth, research vice president at Gartner. “At the same time, collaboration services are becoming infrastructure services, which is good, but it also means more silos since everyone wants to be their own destination.”

Photo: Slack Technologies