all about qtags: Stats - Mobile Marketplace

September 06, 2005

An update on marketplace for mobility marketing in the U.S. -

192 million active mobile phones
90% of active mobile phones capable of text messaging
Over 70% of mobile phone users send text messages
As of mid-2005, 5 billion text message sent each month (up from 2.8 billion a year ago)
80% of Tweens to 24's send and receive text, up 51% from last year
63% of cell phone owners aged 18 to 27 use text
31% of cell phone owners aged 28 to 39 use text
18% aged 40 to 49 use text
24% of all Americans are active text message users
13% have used text to vote in a contest or participate in a poll
A June 05 report, "Mobile Advertising, Brands and Affinity Marketing" (www.in-stat.com) found that 40% of mobile users are paying for non-voice communication services such as text messaging, picture messaging and mobile e-mail as part of their wireless phone service.

Sources for above - CTIA, 2005 & The Yankee Group 2004 Pew Internet & American Life Project - March, 2005, In-Stat Mobile Advertising (#IN0502096MCM)

Canadian Mobile Marketplace -

Canadians currently use more than 17 million wireless devices on a daily basis, including wireless phones pagers, mobile radios and mobile satellite phones.
Canadians send more than 2.7 million text messages per day. (AG - I think it's been revised to 4 million per day).

Global marketplace -

The global market for SMS messaging will be worth $50 billion by 2010.
Wireless users around the world will send 2.38 trillion text messages in 2010.
Total mobile subscribers worldwide passed 1.5 billion in 2004, from just 17 million in 1991.
This growth in the subscriber base is expected to continue for the rest of this decade and cross the 2 billion mark by the end of 2005, and be over 3.5 billion by 2010.
On a regional level, the high-growth Asian markets are estimated to account for half of the total subscriber base, with China and India leading the way. Other low penetration markets, such as Latin America and Africa, will also contribute significantly to the overall growth of the worldwide market, while the number of mobile subscribers in Europe and North America is expected to continue growing slowly until saturation is complete.

SMS Specific -

Despite the industry talk about advanced new data services and the realization of the ‘wireless Internet’, only one non-voice service can truly be described as a mass market success: SMS.
Worldwide, 90% of non-voice operator service revenues (except in Japan and Korea) come from SMS. Voice still represents 80%-90% of all mobile traffic worldwide.
Of the remaining 10%-20% that is non-voice, SMS represents approximately 90% of non-voice revenue worldwide, perhaps 80% in developed markets like Western Europe
Since the first commercial SMS services started gaining ground in the late 1990’s, the texting phenomenon has grown to epic proportions and in 2005 it looks certain that we will see global SMS volumes reaching 1000 billion messages.
In the space of just a few years, mobile messaging has become an immense global industry generating over $55 Billion USD in 2005, the largest portion of this revenue comes from simple SMS, worth an estimated $35 Billion USD in 2005.

Source for above - Portio Research reported on ZDNet and Forbes Mobile Messaging Futures 2005-2010

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