SMS resists WhatsApp's success

Despite the success of WhatsApp, iMessage and other over the top (OTT) applications, SMS will still dominate mobile messaging traffic and revenues to 2016.

That's the main conclusion of the study published by Informa Telecoms & Media, which shows that companies like WhatsApp, BlackBerry and Messenger will generate the 35% of the total messaging traffic in 2016, but only 8% of the revenues. SMS will generate the 42% of the traffic and the 65% of the total incomes.

However, these traffic numbers are not uniforms, explained Pamela Clark-Dickson, senior analyst, Mobile Content & Applications, at Informa Telecoms & Media. “Factors such as the operators’ pricing strategies, and the penetration of smartphones and mobile broadband in a market will determine how quickly and to what extent substitution occurs.”

While in some developed regions and countries is taking place an slow growth or even a small decline in person-to-person SMS revenues, Western Europe will generate the highest amount of  globally between 2011 and 2016. This part of the continent will obtain $174,1 billion, followed by Asia Pacific Developing, where SMS revenues will total $173,8 billion during the same period of time.

Informa forecasts that SMS traffic will total 9,4 trillion messages by 2016, up from 5,9 trillion messages in 2011. In the other hand, global mobile instant messaging (IM) traffic will increase from 1,6 trillion messages in 2011 to 7,7 trillion messages in 2016.

Besides, the OTT messaging service providers’ share of IM revenues will climb from 37% of total revenues in 2011, to $7,4 billion or 46% of total revenues in 2016. E-mail will be the second highest-revenue generator for mobile operators by 2016, generating $32 billion, or 16.3% of total global messaging revenues.

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