Juniper Research Puts Application-to-Person Messaging Worth $60bn by 2018

A new report from Juniper Research has found that revenues from A2P SMS (Application-to-Person - defined as messages which are sent both to and from an application) will be worth almost $60 billion by 2018, up from $55 billion in 2013.

The reach and reliability which SMS affords organizations looking to contact customers and employees remains far greater than many other forms of communication.

A2P SMS - Secure, reliable, ubiquitous

For organisations such as financial services or ticketing providers, SMS is the most secure and reliable option for A2P communications. Furthermore, it is ubiquitous – almost all handsets can receive SMS, however the fact that OTT messaging platforms frequently do not interoperate, and there are still a significant number of people without data plans, means they’re not appropriate for A2P communications.

P2P SMS - Sees revenue decline

However the growth in A2P SMS revenues comes at the same time as P2P (person-to-person) SMS revenues are in decline. Mobile operators are losing out as their customers switch to OTT messaging platforms which have the allure of ‘free’. MNO’s have reacted by aggressively bundling messaging into cheaper deals for users, squeezing their messaging ARPU and, subsequently, total revenues.

Other key findings include:

· By 2018, IM (Instant Messaging) traffic will stand at 63 trillion messages, but only account for just over $3 billion in revenues.

· Far East & China will generate the most traffic across all mobile messaging formats, throughout the forecast period.

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