Worldwide security software revenue witnessed a growth of 12 per cent in 2010 to USD 16.5 billion, driven by a rebound in demand for such solutions, according to research firm Gartner.

According to Gartner, global security software revenue grew from USD 14.7 billion in 2009 to USD 16.5 billion in 2010, a growth of about 12 per cent.

"Key vendors continued to expand their product portfolios, buying companies where appropriate and expanding their reach into emerging markets," Gartner Principal Research Analyst Ruggero Contu said in a statement.

While mature areas like endpoint security and web access management showed single-digit growth, security information and event management (SIEM) and secure web gateway products experienced double-digit growth, Gartner said.

"Products within the security market are undergoing rapid evolution, in terms of both new delivery models -- with security as a service showing increasing popularity -- and new technologies being introduced, often by start-up companies," Contu said.

Symantec retained its market share lead and accounted for 18.9 per cent of total security software revenue in 2010, while McAfee had a 10.4 per cent share.

Trend Micro, IBM and EMC followed with 6.3 per cent, 4.9 per cent and 3.8 per cent shares of the market, respectively.