Mobile messaging revenues are set for measured growth over the next five years, as market forces take effect. SMS, MMS, mobile email and IM traffic volumes will continue their inexorable rise, but the IP evolution is resulting in disruptive business models, increased competition from the web and commoditisation of established services.
According to a new mobile messaging report from Juniper Research, the move from per-transaction to per-month billing models incorporating up to unlimited data and messaging bundles will see total P2P revenues in Western and Eastern Europe post declines, balanced to some extent by a healthy rise in revenues in developing markets, plus growth in ad-funded tariffs.
Indeed, the report anticipates a 3% drop in total revenues, but Western Europe to maintain position as largest market over forecast period, up to 2014.
Meanwhile, web-based communities continue to integrate new messaging media, which could well impact MNO revenues in the increasingly open mobile web browsing environment.
For MNOs, mobile messaging investment is becoming a more considered decision. But mature services such as SMS will remain core revenue generators in the current economic environment, given that messaging is an economical method of P2P communication.
The report found that smartphone users in particular, will continue to drive high usage levels, while there is also a significant opportunity in using mobile messaging mediums to interconnect the disparate digital communities evolving around gaming, social networking and VoIP.