Long Live Mobile Messaging
Mobile messaging has had an interesting journey since its debut in the telephone space. The first message was sent 23 years ago from a computer to a mobile handset and contained the very straightforward text, “Merry Christmas”.
Mobile messaging was meant to be personal, convenient and flexible enough to be transmitted from one device to another.
The Meteoric Rise of Mobile Messaging
Initially, like any technology or service that has yet to find its feet, SMS uptake was, as expected, slow. Mobile messaging, in the form of SMS, rapidly grew in volume from 2001 onwards ever since it became commercialized.By 2013, according to data from Park Associates, global SMS traffic exceeded 9 trillion messages a year. SMS became the ubiquitous medium as a customer’s preferred mode of communication. Its popularity essentially showed that long before Twitter came about, customers were already sharing short messages with fewer than 160 characters.
The Birth of OTT, The New Form of Mobile Messaging
A plethora of messaging applications is available at a customer’s fingertips today. Nonetheless, it is precisely this reason that will help double the overall traffic in these applications by 2019. OTT Messaging Applications are ruling the roost today.
OTT messaging applications, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and BlackBerry Messenger will carry over 100 trillion messages by 2019.
This massive figure is largely attributed to the fact that sending messages on these platforms is predominantly free (since WhatsApp, for instance, uses internet data for transmission.
Here’s the catch, OTT messaging services haven’t quite figured out how to monetize their services just yet. In-application purchases for stickers? Well, this has worked but it isn’t adequate. Payments? Too nascent, it is too soon to tell if this will be a success or not. OTT platforms have made lives so much simpler from vanilla chatting to sending videos, photographs, music tracks – that users have switched over to using OTT as their preferred means of communication compared to SMS.
As a result, SMS volumes have declined by over 25 per cent between 2013 and 2015. Many industry experts called it the death of mobile messaging. However, its not the case. It has just taken a new form.
Application-To-Person (A2P) Messaging
In the next few years, much of the monetization in mobile messaging will be driven through revenues from A2P messaging. Ovum, for instance, believes that the next few years “will mark a golden age for A2P SMS,” with the number of global A2P messages increasing from 1.4 trillion in 2013 to 2.19 trillion by 2018.
A2P messaging, simply put are messages sent between applications and users.
Think about the flight booking confirmations from the travel portal you made reservations on, real-time route updates from the taxi you just booked, promotional offers from your favourite offline store and a discount code from your favourite online one. Password resets and service activations from your bank and feedback and quality ratings for your car’s last service check are all examples of A2P messaging! In short, major enterprise verticals such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), entertainment, tourism, retail, marketing, healthcare and media are pulling out all the stops to monetize from this growing A2P messaging industry.
A2P has evolved from a simple broadcast tool into a quick, unobtrusive & highly targeted method of getting in touch with clients!
Today the bulk of A2P traffic runs over SMS. Service Providers are able to generate significant revenues through this A2P traffic. A well known operator in South East Asia has been able to generate $100M+ revenues on a single A2P messaging platform. This growth on SMS would continue, and offset a little the decline in P2P volumes. However, we should definitely expect that OTT will very soon start to carry a lot of this enterprise traffic towards their customers. As the OTT services develop in terms of their eco-ystem development and provide the required SLA’s to cater to enterprise needs, it will in a few years’ time become one of the leading channels for engagement.
Further enhancements in OTT will allow the platforms to enable ERP integration, better CRM, integrated payments to name a few.
Long Live Mobile Messaging
Just to reiterate-mobile messaging isn’t dead. It never was. We’ve just come a long way from vanilla SMS to using messaging as our own “personal genie”. Mobile messaging in its many forms will drive the future of mobile internet and is now growing to become a de facto platform for our day-to-day activities.
Mobile messaging was meant to be personal, convenient and flexible enough to be transmitted from one device to another.
The Meteoric Rise of Mobile Messaging
Initially, like any technology or service that has yet to find its feet, SMS uptake was, as expected, slow. Mobile messaging, in the form of SMS, rapidly grew in volume from 2001 onwards ever since it became commercialized.By 2013, according to data from Park Associates, global SMS traffic exceeded 9 trillion messages a year. SMS became the ubiquitous medium as a customer’s preferred mode of communication. Its popularity essentially showed that long before Twitter came about, customers were already sharing short messages with fewer than 160 characters.
The Birth of OTT, The New Form of Mobile Messaging
A plethora of messaging applications is available at a customer’s fingertips today. Nonetheless, it is precisely this reason that will help double the overall traffic in these applications by 2019. OTT Messaging Applications are ruling the roost today.
OTT messaging applications, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and BlackBerry Messenger will carry over 100 trillion messages by 2019.
This massive figure is largely attributed to the fact that sending messages on these platforms is predominantly free (since WhatsApp, for instance, uses internet data for transmission.
Here’s the catch, OTT messaging services haven’t quite figured out how to monetize their services just yet. In-application purchases for stickers? Well, this has worked but it isn’t adequate. Payments? Too nascent, it is too soon to tell if this will be a success or not. OTT platforms have made lives so much simpler from vanilla chatting to sending videos, photographs, music tracks – that users have switched over to using OTT as their preferred means of communication compared to SMS.
As a result, SMS volumes have declined by over 25 per cent between 2013 and 2015. Many industry experts called it the death of mobile messaging. However, its not the case. It has just taken a new form.
Application-To-Person (A2P) Messaging
In the next few years, much of the monetization in mobile messaging will be driven through revenues from A2P messaging. Ovum, for instance, believes that the next few years “will mark a golden age for A2P SMS,” with the number of global A2P messages increasing from 1.4 trillion in 2013 to 2.19 trillion by 2018.
A2P messaging, simply put are messages sent between applications and users.
Think about the flight booking confirmations from the travel portal you made reservations on, real-time route updates from the taxi you just booked, promotional offers from your favourite offline store and a discount code from your favourite online one. Password resets and service activations from your bank and feedback and quality ratings for your car’s last service check are all examples of A2P messaging! In short, major enterprise verticals such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), entertainment, tourism, retail, marketing, healthcare and media are pulling out all the stops to monetize from this growing A2P messaging industry.
A2P has evolved from a simple broadcast tool into a quick, unobtrusive & highly targeted method of getting in touch with clients!
Today the bulk of A2P traffic runs over SMS. Service Providers are able to generate significant revenues through this A2P traffic. A well known operator in South East Asia has been able to generate $100M+ revenues on a single A2P messaging platform. This growth on SMS would continue, and offset a little the decline in P2P volumes. However, we should definitely expect that OTT will very soon start to carry a lot of this enterprise traffic towards their customers. As the OTT services develop in terms of their eco-ystem development and provide the required SLA’s to cater to enterprise needs, it will in a few years’ time become one of the leading channels for engagement.
Further enhancements in OTT will allow the platforms to enable ERP integration, better CRM, integrated payments to name a few.
Long Live Mobile Messaging
Just to reiterate-mobile messaging isn’t dead. It never was. We’ve just come a long way from vanilla SMS to using messaging as our own “personal genie”. Mobile messaging in its many forms will drive the future of mobile internet and is now growing to become a de facto platform for our day-to-day activities.
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