Messaging Traffic to Double Over the Next Five Years

Global mobile messaging traffic will reach 28.2 trillion messages annually by 2017, according to Juniper Research. Thats nearly double the amount of SMS, MMS, IM, email and social media messages which will be sent in 2012 – a measly 14.7 trillion.

That growth will primarily be driven by the use of IM (Instant Messaging) services, Juniper says. In five years time, a quarter of all traffic will be IM, including OTT (Over The Top) services such as Whatsapp, iMessage and BBM – not great news from network operators, which currently have no way of making money from OTT messages.

They neednt worry too much, however, as revenues from traditional operator services – SMS and MMS – will continue to dwarf IM revenues. Its not just operators which arent successfully monetising OTT services, it seems. In many cases, thats a question of approach – many of these services are offered as a value-add by hardware vendors or internet brands to attract consumers to their primary product.