The Neo4j team, led by the creator, has always emphasized the value of relationships in data, and this sentiment is now being validated by the market's growing adoption of graph databases. Several well-known companies, including Walmart and HP, have built highly scalable applications on top of the Neo4j graph database, demonstrating its transformative power. The community surrounding Neo4j has grown rapidly, with over 20,000 meetup members and more than 500 events organized in 2015 alone. Analysts predict that the graph market will explode, with Gartner stating that graph analysis is a competitive differentiator for organizations pursuing data-driven operations. Forrester Research predicts that graph databases will be used by over 25% of all enterprises by 2017 and that the market will reach $400 million in annual spend by 2018. The recognition of graph databases has grown significantly over the years, with companies like DataStax recognizing their value and seeking to support them through products like DSE.