Of the five upcoming billion dollar industries unveiled by Syed Irfan Ajmal in Business.com at the start of the year – virtual reality, big data, online retail, IOT and the sharing economy – one seemed to mysteriously slip his mind – Sperm.
The global sperm bank market is expected to reach a value of USD 4.96 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research. Although the market is largely confined to North America due to the large number of sperm banks and registered laboratories, there are several interesting reasons why sperm is becoming such a big market.
Among the technological advancements pertaining to assistive reproduction, the big factor behind the growth of the sperm market are actually to do with society and politics.
With an increasing number of countries legalising same-sex marriage and growing government support toward sperm donation and donor offspring the market is expected to boom over the next ten years as countries adopt a more liberal stance towards assisted pregnancies.
Health is also a key factor. The increasing prevalence of infertility has led to huge demand for sperms, with Europe becoming the fastest growing segment owing to the disparity between demand (high) and supply (low) of sperm.
The growing number of insemination procedures, huge demand for known donors, and huge overall cost incurred in analysis and purification for insemination procedures are few of the factors responsible for majority of revenue share of donor insemination segment. However, In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) segment is expected to be the fastest growing segment over the forecast period due to the growing demand for IVF procedures and growing awareness regarding the benefits of IVF over insemination procedures.
Interesting stuff!