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Characteristic of today’s business is its capacity to source out labor from a place that offers lower cost. Evident of that is the flourishing business process outsourcing companies in places like the Philippines. The United States and European countries still lead in getting call center services from these countries. The benefit is vice versa, companies in the United States, for example, obtain higher profit margins while workers in the Philippines, for example, get jobs that pay the rent and the bills.

What is a BPO or business process outsourcing? This is hiring another company to do business for you and in your behalf. It is as simple as that, and then the process goes on and on like a cycle.

What are the statistics that may give us a vantage idea about how the BPO business has been doing.

Lets take a look.

India stands as the largest BPO offshore source of labor accounting to 5-6% of the total BPO market. Of the offshore segment, however, India commands a 60% market share. This has already declined from almost 70 percent last year due to emerging smaller markets that have successfully taken a chunk off the market India enjoyed last year. The Philippines and South Africa have become India’s stiffest competitors. While the industry is expected to continue to grow, India is expected to experience decline in its market probably due to the English skills that the Philippine market has been collectively exuding.

Filipinos’ second language is English and its medium of instruction in its academic curriculum is English thus, their proficiency. This posts a threat to the Indian BPO market. However, the total size of the BPO industry last year was at a whopping $122 – $155 billion, by far one of the largest emerging industries. With the projected increase in the market, these figures can still go higher. For those thinking about trying out in the industry, a handy suggestion is that there is still room for more in this relatively large market. And with the rising demand for the IT services, more growth can still be expected.

China is the world’s largest country in terms of population. It also has been trying out in the BPO market even from a very small base. In the coming years, China may also take off a bigger chunk in the market and may have the chance to lead.

The key element of this industry is versatility and adaptability. Companies’ needs may vary from time to time but most need efficiency of services and delivery of results on time and within standard. There may be risks involved but with money pouring in from this multi-billion dollar industry, who can resist the venom that BPO mania may bring.

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Ihab Salloum