Announcing The Customer Data Platform Report 2022

Announcing The Customer Data Platform Report 2022

Twilio Segment, the world’s #1 Customer Data Platform (CDP), just announced their yearly exploration of how customer data is driving customer engagement around the globe.

In last year’s report, they predicted that the pandemic would make customer data platforms (CDPs) an essential component of every businesses' tech stacks. In a world where businesses are increasingly using digital channels to interact with customers, CDPs will become essential.

Jumping forward 12 months, these predictions have been borne out, and been supplemented by new trends that are powering CDPs to new heights.

The death knell has been rung for third-party data, triggered by regulators and technology giants. Across the globe, standards and restrictions on the collection, sharing, and processing of data have become tighter. Apple and Google, which capture billions of customers and businesses within their ecosystems, have made moves to limit third-party tracking.

The message is clear: CDPs have become pivotal in the quest to uphold privacy while simultaneously making customer engagement more personal.

Another step forward for customer data platforms?

To better understand the aggressive adoption of CDPs in the past 12 months, we turned to our customers to investigate how they’re using the Twilio Segment platform.

Here’s a quick rundown of what we found.

• Explosive growth in data volume. 2021 saw record numbers of API calls on the Segment platform. This volume was particularly concentrated around seasonal events like Black Friday weekend, which saw an astonishing 111 billion API calls pass through the Segment platform.
• 2021’s fastest-growing apps. The top apps connected to the Segment platform provide a bird’s eye view of what matters to companies today. It was a strong year for data warehousing tools like Snowflake (78% YoY growth) and Google BigQuery (56% YoY growth) as well as digital advertising tools, which are being connected to the Segment platform in record numbers
• Tech stacks continue to consolidate. Tech stack consolidation continued in 2021 as companies are actively looking to reduce martech sprawl, opting for integrated suites over best-of-breed solutions. Despite the significant increase in data processed by the Segment platform, the median number of apps used was down 9%.
• The rise of first-party data: Triggered by regulators and technology giants, more and more companies are preparing for a world where first-party data takes top priority. Our reporting shows server-side data collection is accelerating, therefore helping businesses to improve data accuracy and data control.

Want to dive deeper?

Our report covers all of the above and much more, and reinforces a drum we’ve been beating for over a decade: that CDPs are the mission-critical piece of infrastructure for any digital first business in 2022.