SMS still alive and kicking on back of applications
NEW DELHI: If you thought that the humble SMS, or short messaging service, has died a silent death thanks to WhatsApp, Telegram and others of their ilk, think again. As of 2019, it’s a business worth more than $500 million with about 22 billion messages travelling on telecom networks every month.
But it’s not the typical person-to-person messaging that has grown — that category has flatlined. What’s booming is app-to-person messages, thanks to the plethora of apps that users are downloading to their smartphones. These in turn are peppering subscribers with text messages — notifications, advertisements, promotions and transaction confirmations. The segment has grown 20% every year since 2014 to 210 billion messages in 2018, according to industry data, and is expected to reach 265 billion this year. Five years ago, the number was less than 100 billion.