Facebook Messenger to cost operators $32.6B in 2013, firm predicts

Consumers across the globe will send 41 billion over-the-top mobile messages per day by the end of 2013, compared to an average of 19.5 billion peer-to-peer SMS, according to a new forecast issued by research firm Informa Telecoms & Media. At 3.5 billion, SMS users worldwide clearly outnumber the 586.3 million users of OTT free messaging apps, but OTT traffic has already eclipsed SMS in terms of daily messaging volume: Consumers sent an average of 19.1 billion OTT messages per day in 2012, compared to 17.6 billion messages via SMS.

In related news, researcher Ovum anticipates social messaging apps like Facebook Messenger will cost operators $32.6 billion in 2013, increasing to $86 billion in 2020. While some operators have launched their own branded messaging apps to compete with OTT players, Ovum expects many carriers to partner with OTT competitors. Article