NAICS 513211Canadian industry · 6-digitinternational market

Software publishers (except video game publishers)

SoftwarePublishing Editorial & Rights Management 513

This Canadian industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in software publishing, not including video games. These establishments carry out operations necessary for producing and distributing computer software, such as designing, providing documentation, assisting in installation and providing support services to software purchasers. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA: 1,688
Under 10 employeesA: 60%

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–477246%

5–924615%

10–1922313%

20–4921613%

50–991217%

100–199543%

200–499422%

500+141%

Of 1,688 Canadian establishments with employees, 60% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.

Where they areA

Ontario87752%

British Columbia29718%

Quebec27416%

Alberta1438%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Information, US · opened 2020

79.6%

1 year

59%

3 years

45.7%

5 years

30%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

No US figure is shown. County Business Patterns is coded to the 2017 US edition of NAICS; this code either does not exist there, names a different industry, or is outside the programme's coverage (most of agriculture, rail, postal and public administration are). A figure is attached only where both the code and the title agree.

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 513, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

international competitionlow capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 513 Publishing industries

Software publishing is where most venture-backed entry happens. Traditional publishing has declining print economics and a reader who has to be found again online.

Who sets the price: Platforms and marketplaces for software; advertisers and subscribers for publishing.
The software it runs on: This subsector includes software publishers themselves; publishers run editorial, rights and subscription systems.

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 5132 Software publishers covers it.

Operating businessScreenedfiled at 5132

Packaged Software CompanyExecution decides

binding constraint: distribution

This is the code software companies themselves file under, and by the numbers it is the most attractive group in its sector. Statistics Canada reports software publishers at $27.9B of operating revenue in 2024, up 15.6%, with 68.8% of sales to clients outside Canada [A]. No plant, no licence, a global market from the first day, and 1,076 of the 1,808 establishments employ fewer than ten people [A]. The screen does not find a clean cut at this level, and says so. The nearest thing to one is in the same release: on $27.9B of revenue the industry carried $26.6B of expenses — an operating margin of 4.7% [A], with salaries the largest cost. An industry growing at 15% and keeping under five cents on the dollar is one where the product is cheap to make and the customer is expensive to reach; growth is being bought with payroll. That points at distribution as the binding constraint, and it is the factor recorded here. But distribution is not a property of 'software publishing'. It is a property of the buyer: selling to dental practices, to carriers and to game players are three unrelated problems with different incumbents, sales cycles and prices, and an average over them has no referent. That is why this research screens software by the industry it is sold into — the /software lens holds those records — rather than as one market here. A full study at this level would have nothing to test; the test belongs to each vertical. Video game publishing (513212) has hit-driven economics of its own and was not examined.

NAICS 51324 vendors named10 sourced figuresOpen →

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

Sold across the wider branch

Vertical softwareScreenedfiled at 513 Publishing industries

Publishing Editorial & Rights ManagementOne thing must be true

binding constraint: market size

Incumbent Klopotek and Firebrand Technologies

Trade publishing is a few hundred houses worldwide and the academic side is already owned by the publishers themselves — Elsevier owns Editorial Manager, Clarivate owns ScholarOne. What remains is title management and rights for mid-sized houses, which is a small and shrinking buyer set. Nothing is disclosed here. Every vendor named on this record is private, or sits inside a parent that does not break the line out, so no revenue floor can be built and the market size is genuinely unknown rather than estimated.

NAICS 5134 vendors namedOpen →

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

Who works here

The occupations employed in Information and cultural industries, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Managers in communication (except broadcasting) One industry 77.8%

Librarians, archivists, conservators and curators One industry 74.8%

Technical occupations in motion pictures, broadcasting and the performing arts Mostly one sector 43.1%

Library, correspondence and other clerks Mostly one sector 41.3%

Photographers and support occupations in arts and culture Mostly one sector 31%

Managers in art, culture, recreation and sport Mostly one sector 30.4%

Technical occupations in libraries and public archives Mostly one sector 29.5%

Support occupations in art and culture Mostly one sector 23.6%

Graphic and interior designers Mostly one sector 14.1%

Computer, software and Web designers and developers Mostly one sector 10.3%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Technical occupations in computer and information systems Across the economy 12.8%

Customer and information services representatives Across the economy 6.1%

Technical occupations in electronics and electrical engineering Across the economy 4.3%

Survey, statistical and data entry occupations Across the economy 3.9%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 3.1%

Shoe repairers, shoemakers and upholsterers Across the economy 2.9%

Administrative and financial supervisors Across the economy 2.2%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 2.1%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 2%

Administrative, property and payroll officers Across the economy 1.1%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

Alongside this industry

This is the most specific level NAICS defines. The other industries under 51321 are its nearest neighbours.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
513212	Video game publishers	120	screened at 5132