Frost & Sullivan announced that ON24 has received the 2009 Global Market Leadership Award, in virtual events. In a recent market report, Frost & Sullivan praised ON24 for achieving the market leader position in the global virtual events market in 2008. According to the report, ON24 offers one of the industry’s most comprehensive virtual event solutions, with a great deal of scalability and reliability, as well as a broad product portfolio, which includes self-service and assisted options.

ON24 will be presenting at the Virtual Edge Summit 2009 at the Santa Clara Convention Center May 28-29 visit www.VirtualEdgeSummit.com for the full program and to register FREE (save $595) go to www.DiscoverFree.com

The Market Leadership Award is given to the company that has exhibited market leadership through the successful implementation of a defined market strategy. “As the recipient, ON24 has displayed excellence in all areas of the market leadership process, including the identification of market challenges, drivers and restraints. Furthermore, ON24 has continually demonstrated solutions for monitoring market changes and for implementing superior market strategies,” said Vanessa Alvarez, Frost & Sullivan industry analyst.

“The market response to our growing product portfolio has been overwhelmingly positive, and this award acknowledges that,” said Sharat Sharan, ON24 President and CEO. “We are experiencing unprecedented demand for our industry-leading webcasting and virtual event solutions. With more than 250 comprehensive, multifaceted virtual shows and 30,000 webcasts projected, 2009 will be our best year ever.”

When asked where the growth was coming from, Denise Persson, ONN24’s CMO said “Our growth is coming from both new and existing customers. Of our new customers, a growing percentage are Fortune 500 companies. So, it could be said that virtual events are increasingly being embraced by large enterprises. Secondly, ON24 Virtual Show is making many new applications possible. Examples include so-called “hybrid” trade shows and internal meetings such as sales kick-off meetings. Finally, customer behavior has been influenced by the economy and a renewed focus on cost efficiency.”

According to Alvarez, ON24 now owns over 30% of the virtual events market. To choose the recipient of this award, Frost & Sullivan analysts track competitor revenue and market share, interview all market participants and conduct extensive secondary research using proprietary data sources.

As for new products in 2009, ON24 said “Yes, our product roadmap continues to evolve. Our focus this year will be on enhanced interactivity and new reporting and self-service capabilities.”