Short Messaging Service (SMS) are expected to generate $15.3 million per hour Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) world wide compared to $2.6million per hour from Over-The-Top (OTT) messaging services.
This will be mainly in form of data usage charges, according to Portio Research, which predicts that SMS still continues to deliver massive revenue from massive increase despite the growing popularity of OTT messages apps.
The global revenue which the SMS service gets has increased annually since the early 1990s and is execpted to be above 2010 levels until 2017, however, MNOs are gaining revenue from increase data usage.
The revenues are forecast to increase to USD 230 billion in 2013, which is compared to USD 218.1 billion in 2012, and is expected to reach USD 236.8 billion in 2014 and USD 239.7 billion in 2015. it is then expected to decrease to USD 236.7 billion in 2016 and USD 227.1 billion in 2017.
The increment in revenue will vary depending on the region; it will start with North America which will get its peak in 2014, Europe in 2015, and the Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa in 2016.
The drivers maintaining growth in 2011-2015 are the continuing growth of the mobile base which are mainly driven by developing economies. The key driver behind the decline from 2015 to 2017 is the shift away from SMS in more mature markets as smartphone penetration increases and more users shift to OTT messaging apps and social networks.