New Industry Report Examines Mobile Messaging Market

Facebook Messenger and Skype are the most popular messaging apps in the U.S., according to Parks Associates’ new industry report The Post-SMS War for Mobile Communications: Messaging Apps.

“Among messaging app users, 53% use Facebook Messenger, and 45% use Skype,” said Tejas Mehta, research analyst, Parks Associates. “These two apps are dominant in this high-growth area. At the beginning of 2014, 34% of U.S. smartphone owners used a messaging app on a monthly basis. The difficulty, especially for new entrants, is turning user growth into revenues.”

Parks Associates notes smartphone penetration has exceed 75% of U.S. broadband households, driving growth of OTT messaging apps as users look to avoid costs of SMS messaging services by their mobile operators. As a result, the rapid growth in messaging app usage comes at the cost of text messaging. Parks Associates estimates that global OTT messaging volume will grow from 10 trillion messages in 2013 to nearly 67 trillion messages in 2018, while global text messaging volume will decline from nearly 9 trillion messages in 2013 to just over 6.7 trillion messages in 2018.

Mehta adds that many leading messaging apps such as LINE, WeChat, and Kakao Talk are extending their chat platforms to offer gaming, media, and commerce solutions in order to add revenue streams. Features such as group messaging, image/video sharing, and stickers have also succeeded in building user engagement.

"Very soon messaging will be cloud-based and delivered as a service,” Mehta said. "This trend will clip SMS revenues for mobile carriers, traditionally a key revenue source for these companies. Mobile carriers need a multifaceted approach to manage the impact and remain relevant. They must offer value to subscribers through enhanced features and also work with technology partners and third-party service providers to leverage key assets in order to deliver strong value propositions to their subscribers.”

The Post-SMS War for Mobile Communications: Messaging Apps examines key trends and market drivers in mobile messaging. The report provides forecasts of SMS and OTT messaging volume and global carriers’ messaging service revenue from 2013-2018. It also analyzes business model strategies formobile network operators (MNOs) and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) to generate and increase revenues from mobile messaging.

The report is available for purchase on www.parksassociates.com.Contact [email protected] or 972-490-1113 for more information. To request an analyst interview with Tejas Mehta, contact Holly Sprague at [email protected] or 720-987-6614.

About Parks Associates: Parks Associates, a woman-founded and certified business, is an internationally recognized market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services. Founded in 1986, Parks Associates provides business intelligence and research services through its proprietary methodologies developed over decades, including quarterly surveys of 10,000 internet households.

The company's expertise crosses many industries: home security and smart home, streaming video, broadband and pay-TV services, digital media and platforms, gaming, Wi-Fi and home networks, connected health, support, consumer electronics, home control systems, energy management, and tech solutions for the multi-dwelling (MDU), small-to-medium business (SMB), and commercial building markets.

Each year, Parks Associates brings thousands of leaders together for its webinars and annual events. The firm hosts the annual executive research and strategy conferences CONNECTIONS™, Connected Health Summit, Smart Energy Summit, Smart Spaces, and Future of Video. https://www.parksassociates.com
 

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