The worldwide social customer relationship management (CRM) market is forecast to reach over $1 billion in revenue by year-end 2012 from about $625 million in 2010.

 

According to Gartner, worldwide social CRM is projected to total $820 million in 2011.

 

However, analysts said spending by buyers on social software for marketing, customer service and sales increased by 40% in 2010 while social CRM remained less than 5% of the total CRM application market.

 

More than 100 vendors have social CRM offerings, but most are not profitable and generate annual revenue of less than $1 million.