The delivery of goods via unmanned aerial vehicles -or drones– is a relatively recent development, says a report by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC).
The drone industry continues to expand beyond its military origins to become a powerful business tool and recreational activity.
According to Business Insider Intelligence, commercial drone use will reach 2.4 million units by 2023, a compound annual growth rate of 66 percent.
Drones will be used in the agriculture, construction and mining, insurance and media and telecommunications sectors.
Red Cat Holdings refers that the drone services market is also expected to grow to over $60 billion by 2025, up from $4.4 billion in 2018.
Plans and early efforts to offer drone delivery services emerged in the mid-2010s.
Since then, the drone delivery market has developed more slowly than industry participants anticipated.
To date, according to the USITC, drone delivery has largely been limited to small, pilot projects with limited product offerings in a few U.S. and foreign locations.
In addition, a USITC source estimates that delivery and logistics make up a very small part of the global commercial drone industry in 2020, trailing other commercial applications-including energy, entertainment and other media, construction and real estate, security, and agriculture-by a wide margin.
Drones
Estimates of the current and projected size of the global drone delivery market vary widely and are not comparable.
Each of these disparate estimates suggests that, despite its small size, the global drone delivery market will grow rapidly over the next five years.
Statista has published estimates indicating that the global drone delivery market will more than triple between 2021 and 2027, from $13 billion to $4.4 billion.
Companies
McKinsey also forecasts rapid growth in this market, estimating that the number of global drone deliveries will increase from 482,000 in 2021 to more than 1.4 million in 2022.
Market research firm Drone Industry Insights identifies Zipline, Wing (a subsidiary of Alphabet, Inc.) and Matternet-all U.S.-based-as the top drone delivery companies in the world.
Other U.S. companies that have been identified as major players in this sector include Amazon Prime Air, Skydrop and UPS.
Top foreign providers of drone delivery services include Ireland-based Manna and Israel-based Flytrex -ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, according to Drone Industry Insights- and Germany‘s Wingcopter, among others.
