Mobile service provider messaging revenue will decline 42 percent to less than $53 billion by 2021 as over the top alternatives displace the need for texting.
The global base of active over-the-top (OTT) messaging users increased by over 40 percent during 2014 with the average user sending over 900 messages per user per month, over eight times more than the average user of text messaging services, Strategy Analytics said.
At the same time, predictions for OTT messaging revenue, at least in terms of subscription revenue, show that OTT messaging cannibalizes some amount of activity, but in other ways simply destroys the revenue source.
“By 2021 we forecast global revenue for OTT messaging services to approach $13 billion in revenue,” said David Kerr, Strategy Analytics SVP.
