App-generated Texts to Generate $70bn by 2016

Revenues from app-generated (A2P) texts will exceed $70bn (£42.5bn) by 2016, according to a new report from Juniper Research. The report forecasts that A2P revenues will overtake P2P (peer-to-peer) SMS revenues during 2016, as the strategic focus for players within the mobile messaging ecosystem shifts from communication between individuals, to sending and receiving service-enabling messages.

A2P messaging – defined as those messages which are sent to or from an application – has a wide variety of use-cases, says Juniper. These include financial services, advertising, marketing, business administration, ticketing, television voting and any other service where information needs to be sent to, or received from, a large number of users in text form.

Mobile Messaging report author Daniel Ashdown argues: “While SMS is one of the oldest value-added services, it has an enduring appeal for a number of reasons. In terms of text communication, it is unrivalled on the mobile device in its ubiquity – virtually every handset in the world can send and receive it. This makes it extremely appealing for brands who want to enable communication with their customers, as unlike other messaging mediums, they know it will reach almost its entire intended audience.”

But Juniper believes that revenues from P2P SMS will peak in a number of regions during the period 2010-2016, as it reaches a low point in valuation. The report finds that even in other regions where SMS has not reached the same levels of traffic, revenue growth will be moderate, due to continuing competitive pricing, particularly of pre-paid message buckets.

There’s more information about the report, plus a free whitepaper, here.