According to the research firm Ovum mobile broadband revenues will outpace SMS revenues at the end of 2013. As per a study conducted by the research firm, the SMS growth rate declined from 14 per cent in 2011 to 8 per cent in 2013.
Further 2013 onwards mobile broadband revenues will form the bulk of operators? non-voice revenues (contributing 43 per cent of revenues in 2014. They will outpace revenues from SMS, with messaging forming a relatively smaller proportion of data revenues (40 per cent in 2014). 2013 will be the last year which will see SMS accounting for the largest proportion of non-voice revenues. And by 2015 SMS revenues will begin to plateau.
The rise of social media in the last few years has contributed to the decline in messaging revenues. Further, the bundling of SMS with calling minutes and mobile broadband plans has also contributed to the decline of messaging revenues. Ovum forecasts that social messaging cannibalisation of SMS revenues will increase from $32.6 billion in 2013 to over $86.0 billion in 2020.
Going forward, the relationship between operators and over the top (OTT) players will have an important role to play in shaping communication world. Ovum expects partnerships in this segment intensify during the course of 2013. For example, WhatsApp already has a number of operator partnerships, including a roaming pact with service provider 3 in Hong Kong and Reliance Communications in India. Facebook has a long history of working with operators, and its new partnership with 18 global operators will allow free or discounted data access to the social network?s messaging platform.
The report states that at present most social messaging services are either free or based on discounted plans. In 2013 a large number of social messaging companies are expected to turn into content platform providers. Messaging services companies like KakaoTalk and Line already have growing revenue streams from games, emoticons, and marketing channels. Also, the social gaming service DeNA has introduced a messaging service, Comm, to anchor its existing gaming platform.
Going forward, social messaging?s viral growth, high level of engagement, and sticky nature, offer strong foundation to players for building a content platform.
