The European kiosk marketplace is growing at about 35 percent per annum. It is a market with a very large number of kiosk vendors respectively kiosk sales companies. Frost & Sullivan therefore stated in a study that the European kiosk market must and will change, vendors need to add value to their customers' operations and to integrate the kiosks as one part of the customers' multi channel strategies. Today and in 2014 the kiosk shipments will have about 28 percent of the total number of shipments, as a survey of NetWorldAlliance said. Due to Summit Research Associates Europe has more of a self-service tradition than the USA, but now USA surpasses Europe last year: 94 people use a kiosk per day in the US compared to only 39 users per day in Europe.

Nevertheless there exist some very large kiosk projects in Europe:
British Telecom (BT) with 1.500 – 20.000 units, UK's Inspired Broadcast Networks with 3.000 – 20.000 units, Germany's Job Centers with 13.000 units, Ireland's Circle Network of Parnell Court with 10.000 units, UK's Job Centers plus with 9.000 units, Europe's EMS-TV with 8.000 units, Germany's Cewe Color with 7.000 units, France's Total with 4.500 units, Germany's Toll Collect with 3.700 units, the Swedish Nation Market Administration with 3.500 – 4.500 units, UK's Spar with 2.700 units, UK's Vodafone with 2.000 units, Germany's Deutsche Bank with 2.000 units, France's La Poste with 2.000 units, UK's Leisure Link with 2.000 units, UK's Cyberview with 2.000 units, UK's Sainsbury's with 1.400 units, UK's The Boots Co. with 1.370 units, Switzerland's Coop with 1.200 units, UK's Cityspace with 1.000 units, Switzerland's TerminalCompany with 1.000 units and Spain's Telefonica with 1.000 units and furthermore several lottery companies in Germany, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Croatia and Estonia with about 22.000 lottery kiosk terminals.

A breakdown by market segments shows governmental applications are first with about 22 percent, followed by telecommunications with 17 percent, lottery companies with 14 percent and retailers with 13 percent. The majority of kiosk installations is based in UK (38 percent), Germany (33 percent), France, and Italy, significant markets are also in Spain, Portugal and in Scandinavia.

About 10 kiosk vendors represent more than two third of the market. The rest (100 and more companies) has a market share of less than five per cent. If one of them looses a project, in most cases the existence of that company is in great danger. Many of the kiosk vendors do not have understood that the kiosk is only one medium within an integrated multi channel strategy of the company. And furthermore a lot of them is producing a kiosk terminal, hoping they can sell it to the market – but do not recognize that the customer expects an individual hardware design and software solution, a complete consulting and integrated multi channel strategy.

The most important kiosk vendors in Europe are: NeoProducts (UK), Marconi Interactive Systems (UK), Verhaert (Belgium), Cyberdeck (France), IER (France), ULTIMedia (France), Mikrolund (Sweden) and Germany's friendlyway, Polygon, Werkstation, Wincor Nixdorf, Rittal and Hoeft & Wessel.

In the Kiosk Software arena half of all worldwide kiosk browser products have European origin. A recent "Worldwide Internet Kiosk Browser Analysis" identified 5 solutions from European providers within the TopTen kiosk browsers; the most important and leading software product is Provisio's Sitekiosk (Germany) ranked No. 1, followed by Germany's InterCafe (blue image) at rank 4-a, Slovenia's Logina Kiosk Software (Logina) at rank 4-b, Germany's coinbox (get2gate) at rank 6-a and UK's KUDOS (Kudos Digital Group) at rank 10-a.

Referring applications on interactive kiosk systems there is a strong trend for instore redemption kiosks using customer loyalty cards and for photo kiosks. A new trend is also seen for DVD rental kiosks and HR terminals to address also the unconnected employees. Especially in Germany kiosk systems have been used more and more as an integral part of multi channel strategies; interactive out-of-home advertising media is addressing customers via mobile phones, Internet and kiosk terminals.

Architects use nowadays multimedia in form of interactive media installations in buildings and in front of the building. Within the famous German Multimedia Award therefore a special category with separate judges has been set up for promoting kiosk systems and interactive media installations. Besides the well-know Kiosk awards in USA this the only award in Europe addressing to the kiosk systems.

In Europe there does not exist a similar vendor and user group like Self Service & Kiosks Association and S3TP in USA. Only the E-Kiosk group within the German Federal Association Digital Economy (BVDW) has been proved since 1999 as a central place in Germany relevant for all kiosk interests - on the basis of an absolute neutrality. Main target of the E-Kiosk group is to be a community of interests for its members to promote employment and use of all applications and solutions within the range of the interactive self-service media. Therefore most of the members belong to the group of consultants and multimedia agencies, the group that normally will be contacted by the enterprises to develop their multi channel strategy.

The Euro Kiosk Network (EKN) is a Kiosk Industry Organization and Global Resource Center dedicated to providing information and promoting professional solutions for Kiosk suppliers, manufacturers, products, services, and other related technology applications. In Germany the HighText publishing company has set up a very comprehensive resource center for kiosk systems with approx. 700 articles, a weekly newsletter and a lot of RFPs in that area.

Finally it should be noticed that with KIOSK EUROPE a new magazine has been created which is Europe's only publication dedicated to self-service technologies and systems.

To sum it up:

Kiosks have finally arrived in Europe and have found a high acceptance amongst consumers. There are a lot of very innovative kiosk projects all over Europe in all market segments. The vendor market is highly fragmented, only a few vendors have the necessary competence – only they will be asked for realizing the main kiosk projects. Europe's kiosk software providers are top and have developed the most comprehensive Internet kiosk browsers. Retail, Government, Telecommunication and Lottery are the main drivers of kiosk systems in Europe. Therefore instore redemption terminals, photo kiosks, DVD rental kiosks and HR kiosks as well as interactive media installations – integrated within enterprises' multi channel strategies – are presently the top multimedia applications in Europe. The promotion of the kiosk marketplace will mainly be done by organizations like the BVDW in Germany and EKN in Spain – and finally by the well accepted new KIOSK EUROPE magazine.

Lesen Sie hierzu auch meine Beiträge
"Germany's Kiosk Market in 2002 / 2003",  in: http://www.kioskmarketplace.com/research_story.htm?article_id=14775&pavilion , 04. Feb. 2003

(c) Eckhard Reimann (12/2005)