WhatsApp and iMessage instant messengers have become more popular than the traditional short message service (SMS). A growing number of people choose to communicate specialized applications.
According to a study conducted by the analytical agency Informa for the Financial Times business publication, for several years the technology of sending text messages and media content has shown significant growth. Its success can be compared with the achievements of Skype in the field of international telephone communication.
According to the CEO of WhatsApp Jan Kuma, his service surpassed Twitter by the number of users, and Facebook by the number of messages sent.
By the end of last year, more text messages were sent via WhatsApp, Kik, as well as applications from manufacturers of hardware platforms, including iMessage and BBM, than through SMS service. Last quite a long time fed mobile operators, bringing huge profits.
However, SMS is still far before sunset. Informa analysts predict that this year telecom operators will get 120 billion dollars from SMS. At the same time, the volume of messages transmitted via instant messengers will be twice as large as SMS and will amount to 41 billion dispatches per day. Quite a real figure, considering that WhatsApp processes about 18 billion messages daily.
The superiority of chat programs was confirmed by the Vice-President of the European Commission, Neelie Kroes:
Chat applications bypassed SMS on a global scale. Cash cow dies. Wake-up time for telecommunication companies.
Kik CEO Ted Livingston believes the death of an SMS is imminent:
This process is inevitable. Users choose mobile data transfer rates. Why pay for the service if there is a free alternative?
Seeing the trend, mobile operators are beginning to deal with third-party messengers on their own. They add additional voice and text services to the packages, hoping that the deployment of ultra-high-speed 4G networks will make a difference.
Google, meanwhile, is going to combine text, voice and video services into the Babble cross-platform messenger.
The article is based on materials .
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