Revenera report: Economic crisis fuels software piracy

“Profitability and stable growth are important traits for a well-run software business. On the run to SaaS and modern business models, many suppliers miss out on significant revenue opportunities from piracy, overuse, and misuse. Those that have and take action on insights into unlicensed use often have better growth rates to report, and more funds available to ignite innovation and new offerings,” said Nicole Segerer, SVP and General Manager at Revenera. “Many suppliers still aren’t even aware of how much revenue is lost. These gaps must be closed with efficient entitlement management and software license compliance initiatives.”

Highlights from the Revenera Monetization Monitor: Software Piracy and Compliance 2023 report include:

• Piracy is the most significant software license compliance issue contributing to revenue leakage. 
  
  • 40 percent of respondents cite piracy as a major problem, 26 percent cite overuse as a major problem, and 30 percent cite misuse as a major problem in 2023. 37 percent also cite the more recognized challenge of customer churn as a major problem, highlighting the missed revenue opportunities for suppliers who ignore piracy.
  • Many suppliers are unaware of the prevalence of revenue leakage: An average of 15 percent don’t know how much revenue is lost to piracy, overuse, or misuse. 
  • Among those who are aware of the prevalence of revenue leakage at their organizations, losses are significant: Nearly 10 percent report that piracy, overuse and misuse is responsible for losses of more than 30 percent of revenue.
• Clarity into software piracy, overuse, and misuse is necessary for revenue recovery.
  
  • More than 1 in 5 (21 percent) are unaware of how they are losing revenue to software piracy, overuse or misuse. Among those who are aware, anecdotal reports from the sales/support organization are used by 52 percent, audit programs are used by 50 percent, whistleblower reports are used by 36 percent, and telemetry/phone home data are used by 34 percent.
  • More than a third of respondents (37 percent) are planning to change monetization models to tighten enforcement/compliance in order to help eliminate revenue leakage.
  • Significant new license revenue opportunity exists for software suppliers. Aggregate data from Revenera’s Compliance Intelligence customers used to create the Top 20 list of piracy and license compliance hotspots reveals a $16.2 billion revenue opportunity in countries with strong IP laws and a track record of successful license compliance programs.

Methodology

Revenera conducted the 2023 Revenera Monetization Monitor Software Industry Survey from March through July 2023. Job levels of the 454 survey respondents were C-level/executive (16 percent), SVP/VP (13 percent), director (34 percent), manager/team leader (27 percent), and individual contributors/consultants (10 percent). This report, the third in the Revenera Monetization Monitor 2023 series, focuses on software piracy and compliance; it also incorporates aggregated data collected from Revenera’s Compliance Intelligence customers. The first report focused on software monetization models and strategies; the second focused on software usage analytics.