Some fascinating analysis today from research group Informa (Ovum) who say that in 2012 mobile IP messaging overtook SMS messaging in volume. Informa estimate that nearly 19 billion messages were sent using IP messaging apps each day around the world, versus 17.6 billion SMS messages. By the end of 2013, Informa estimates that 41 billion OTT messages will be sent every day, compared with an average of 19.5 billion P2P SMS messages. They predict the contrast will be even starker in 2014, with 21 billion daily text messages projected, against almost 50 billion daily app-based messages. Each OTT user sent an average of 32.6 OTT messages a day, compared with just five SMS messages per day per P2P SMS user, meaning that OTT-messaging users are sending more than six times as many messages as P2P SMS users do.

This lost SMS volume will cost global mobile operators $32.6 billion of lost revenue in 2013, and that figure will jump to over $86 billion in 2020.

Informa expects many carriers will launch their own IP messaging services and anticipates a flurry of agreements over the next two to three years. “Mobile operators do have the opportunity to provide their own IP-based messaging applications,” Clark-Dickson noted.

HDmessaging delivers IP messaging services (integrated with SMS) today for T-Mobile, Globe, Maxis and LG, with many more to launch this year. More information on the HDmessaging platform is available here.

The Superbowl was the country’s mobile messaging religion on Sunday – being included in messages 4 times more frequently than Church, 3 times more often than the movies, 18 times more often than shopping and 8 times more often than the weather (which was dominated by talk of snow).

Ray Lewis was the most talked about player – receiving a massive 7 times more mentions than second placed Jacoby Jones. Flacco won the battle of the quarterbacks – discussed 20% more than Kaepernick.

The team battle also reflected the final score, though by a wider margin than seen on the field – messages talking about the Ravens beat 49ers messages by a whopping 73%.

Bucking the trend were the coaches – Jim Harbaugh was discussed twice as often as brother John Harbaugh.

However, the real winner of the Superbowl was Beyoncé – she was mentioned in 5% of all Superbowl related conversations – more than all the players combined.

Pizza was the most popular food discussed on Sunday, followed by cookies, cake and tacos. Bacon was talked about twice as much as salad.

HDmessaging analyzed over 15 million messages on Sunday using its patented MagicWords technology. MagicWords uses natural language processing algorithms to add contextual links to messages. This enriches users’ conversations with links to relevant information. People using messaging services powered by HDmessaging and talking about the Superbowl were provided with links to live scores, player profiles, news stories, videos and merchandise for sale.

“MagicWords gives people sports scores, videos and news right inside of their text messaging service – when they talk about their team, a player, Beyoncé, the game and more, our patented algorithms understand the context of the conversation and provide links to more information.” said Rob Lawson, COO of HDmessaging. “This means that people don’t have to toggle between apps, their mobile browser and messaging. We give them direct access to more information right inside of messaging.”

HDmessaging provide their MagicWords service to clients such as T-Mobile, LG and Globe Telecom.

Philippine telecommunications company Globe Telecom becomes the first operator in Asia to launch GMESSAGE, a new mobile messaging service available to smartphone users worldwide.

Built and managed by HDmessaging who also powers T-Mobile’s ‘Bobsled’ service and LG’s ‘LG Talk’ service, the GMESSAGE service goes beyond services delivered via standard internet connection by providing users with a single platform for all their phone-based instant messaging needs.

As a branded hybrid messaging service, GMESSAGE is perfect for Filipinos who have led the world in text messaging over the last 10 years.

GMESSAGE allows users to send and receive unlimited messages for free with other GMESSAGE users, and for P0.15 ($0.004) per message to non-GMESSAGE users. They can share photos, music, video clips, voice notes, and more. GMESSAGEs can be sent to individuals or groups as large as 25 users, even if those friends are using SMS. GMESSAGE also allows the user to privately share their location in messages. GMESSAGE is available today as a free downloadable application from Google Play (Android) and soon from the Apple App Store.

Unlike over-the-top (OTT) messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Viber, GMESSAGE incorporates SMS as one of its main features. This means being able to experience the benefits of next-generation messaging by sending messages via SMS to your friends even if they don’t have a smartphone, a data plan or a downloaded application.

“We pride ourselves in offering our users innovative mobile services. By working with HDmessaging, we have been able to deliver a next generation messaging service that we will rapidly expand to new platforms and with new features,” said Peter Bithos, Senior Advisor for Consumer Business at Globe Telecom. “Text messaging is what our customers love and use most of all, so it is important that we continue to offer world leading messaging services.”

“The Philippines is the logical place for mobile messaging innovation and we are honored to have been chosen by Globe to power GMESSAGE. It breaks the mold for carrier messaging by offering free messaging worldwide, and combining IP and SMS messaging platforms in a unique way to offer the end consumer a wealth of benefits” added Rob Lawson, COO of HDmessaging.

Congratulations to HDmessaging partner T-Mobile USA who crossed 1 million users for their Bobsled service this week. HDmessaging powers the Bobsled messaging service.

“T-Mobile is committed to expanding innovative communication experiences beyond our own wireless customer base to include people across all networks, devices, countries and carriers,” said Brad Duea, senior vice president, T-Mobile USA. “The popularity and continued growth of the Bobsled service is testament to consumers’ desire for simple ways to stay connected with friends and family.”

We’re proud to work with T-Mobile, and look forward to announcing more innovative messaging services with them shortly.

Chetan Sharma just released a fabulous report on what he calls Mobile Internet 3.0. We couldn’t agree more on his analysis of the need to proactively seek new revenue streams as core services move to IP, and not to succumb to being a dumb pipe for OTT services.

“Don’t sit back on OTT services – The consequences of not playing an active role in the OTT services can be severely detrimental to the operator profitability. Given that there is a significant pressure on the margins of the voice, access, and messaging businesses respectively, operators have to find new sources of sustainable revenues in the next 5 years or else accept to live with the decline of margins by 30-50%. KPN in Netherlands and SMART in Philippines have seen their profitability decline as consumers shifted their communication behavior from SMS to IP messaging. On the other hand, Turkcell in Turkey recognized the mobile marketing and advertising opportunity back in 2002 and slowly cultivated the market for such services. The mobile marketing/advertising revenue is now contributing approximately 20% to the data revenues as of 2011.”

Ovum just released a report analysing the effect that IP messaging apps are having on SMS revenues. It concluded that Blackberry Messenger, Whatsapp, Facebook messages and other messaging applications resulted in

$13.9 billion in lost SMS revenue in 2011.

The BBC noted that the report’s author, Neha Dharia  ”concluded that mobile operators must “work together to face the challenge from major internet players.”

“Operators must remain open to partnering with app developers, sharing end-user data with them and allowing integration with the user’s social connections,” she said.

“Working closely with handset vendors will also be important; they control some of the most popular social messaging apps, and can also provide preloaded applications.”

HDmessaging provides an IP messaging platform that is used by mobile operators like T-Mobile and handset vendors like LG.

• More than two trillion text messages are sent each year in the United States
• US texting generates more than $20 billion in revenue for the wireless industry
• Verizon Wireless generates as much as $7 billion a year in revenue from texting & texting brings in about a third of the operating income
• BBM is the stickiest feature of the BlackBerry experience, even more than e-mail
• Apple devices account only for 5 percent of the texting traffic sent each year
• Pinger, says it has 19 million members in the Unites States alone. It has handled more than 15 billion text messages since it began offering its service in 2009

More evidence today of the rapid changes happening in mobile messaging that are in turn fueling our business. We have previously seen data from the Philipines and the Netherlands that SMS volumes were dropping, and Forbes today reported that the same is true in 3 other advanced mobile markets:

Finland. Home of Nokia, the HDmessaging development team and traditionally an early adopting market in mobile saw a 22% drop in SMS volumes year on year (Christmas Eve volume on Sonera, the country’s biggest operator).

Hong Kong. Another mature mobile market saw a 14% drop in volume from Christmas day 2010 to 2011

Australia. Similarly, Telstra experienced a 9% year-on-year SMS decline over the whole of 2011.

So is mobile messaging dead? No, consumers are just moving to services with better features and lower prices that use a data connection not SMS to send messages. Indeed there is plenty of evidence that mobile messaging volumes continue to rise, which just accentuates the fall in SMS volumes. What is interesting from today’s data is just how fast this is happening.

The challenge for mobile operators is what to do about this. SMS has traditionally accounted for 20%+ of profits – one major global operator recently described it to us as “second only to prostitution” in profitability. In addition to a loss of profits, having consumers move to third party solutions for messaging means a loss of a relationship (carriers have already lost the app-store battle to Apple and Google). Do operators accept that they are ‘dumb pipes’ and turn into the ISPs of mobile, or do they launch their own IP based messaging solutions?

We strongly believe that operators must provide best of breed solutions for their consumers, or expect to see more erosion of profits and loyaly. HDmessaging is working with operators around the globe to provide white label IP messaging solutions.

• Group messaging
• Media sharing (photos, videos, audio, etc)
• Native SMS integration – send regular text messages and include text-only friends in your group conversations
• Cloud synchronization – access all your messages and contacts from phone, tablet and web
• Check-ins shared within conversations
• Facebook integration

HDmessaging provides all the backend functionality for Bobsled, and also builds the clients and websites for the service. T-Mobile and HDmessaging are proud to work together to bring this exciting product to consumers around the world:

“With Bobsled, we continue to leverage and embrace the power of IP communications to bring seamless, cost-effective connections to consumers across networks, devices, countries and carriers,” said Brad Duea, senior vice president, T-Mobile USA. “With Bobsled, people can now send free one-to-one and group messages anywhere in the world, and access their phone’s contacts and text messages from their tablet or computer.”

Check out these videos that explain some of the great features and capabilites of the Bobsled service:

GROUP MESSAGING:

MESSAGE SYNCRONIZATION:

INTERNATIONAL MESSAGING: