• 2019-12-11 | 06:57:33
• -

 NEW DELHI: If you think the humble SMS service, the SMS service, is dead, thanks to WhatsApp, Telegram and other Ilk, think again. As of 2019, it has a business value of more than $500 million and about 22 billion messages are circulating on telecommunications networks every month.
But this is not typical of people-to-people news that has grown – the category has flattened. What is booming is app-to-human messaging, thanks to the sheer number of apps that users are downloading onto their smartphones. These in turn are a large number of subscribers to SMS – notifications, advertising, promotions and transaction confirmations. According to industry data, the sector has grown by 20% annually since 2014, reaching 210 billion pieces of information by 2018 and is expected to reach 265 billion this year. Five years ago, that number was less than 100 billion.
Bharat Bhargava, a partner and leader at EY Telecom Consulting, said: “A2P SMS or enterprise messaging has proliferated. He added: “Adopting OTP (one-time password) confirmations, transaction alerts, notifications, branding and marketing is increasing across verticals, including marketing, banking and retail operations.”
More than 95% of traffic comes from India, often generated by international messages from apps such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and others. Add the remaining balance.
However, according to Analysys Mason, the number of messages sent per month by users is expected to halve from 38 in 2012 to 16. In India, the amount of information between people was 391 billion, before top apps such as WhatsApp and Face bookMessenger appeared.
Analysts say the growth in app-to-human information has offset the decline in people-to-people information over the years.