BBM growth offers new opportunities and threatens SMS
One of the talking points at MediaTel Group’s Youth, Media and Technology event at Channel 4 last week was the use of BBM – Blackberry Messenger.
The instant messaging application only available on Research in Motion’s Blackberry devices is the first line of messaging for some of the teenage panel and their peer group. The system has moved Blackberry from the business market into the youth market in many territories including the UK, but not yet in the US.
Consultancy, Mobile Youth forecasts that text or SMS volumes will drop “by 20% in the next two years in regions including the UK, Indonesia, South Africa and Brazil”, according to a report in yesterday’s Financial Times. The Blackberry is the most popular phone amongst 15-29’s in South Africa according to Mobile Youth, and second to Apple in the States.
RIM says that over 39m people now use BBM, and the FT reports that there are unconfirmed rumours that RIM may open up BBM to other mobile platforms including an iphone or Android app; and that “RIM is building new “gifting” capabilities in BBM, allowing people to send each other vouchers or applications”.
Your article today regarding the demise of text messaging is a stretch at best for personal text messages, and fails to cite the areas that will see further rapid growth of text messaging in the future. Firstly, the research has been conducted within a narrow age range, 15-24 years old. This is only a range of nine years, whereas I have come across texters between nine years and 99 years old. I would question Youth Mobile’s research methodology and begin by a review of the sample and how this sample was selected. Secondly, the research completely misses the use of SMS as a marketing tool.
In the UK 45 million adults share almost 70 million mobile SIM cards (phone numbers) and over 71 million handsets – an average of 2.5 mobiles per adult. With some users owning up to four handsets*. SMS marketing has been used to reach virtually every demographic target internationally. So, not only has there been an explosion of SMS marketing over the past few years, but marketers are now using it as a fundamental tool of the marketing armoury.
Furthermore, the 39m users of BBM is less than 1% of those using SMS currently and compared with other IP messaging applications, some of which have achieved as many as one million registrations per week, BBM is old hat! This is highlighted by RIM’s recent legal action against Kik, which demonstrates how out of touch and desperate RIM is to save what remains of its business, which has been decimated by iPhone and Android.
So rather than think of the demise of texting, both business and consumers should think about the way we are using mobile messaging and how it will be used next. As far as I’m concerned, text is here to stay, albeit as one of many forms of mobile messaging.
* http://www.newsroom.firstdirect.com/press/release/quotmobile_ukquot_more_mobiles