Instant messaging is a form of online chat, which offers real time text transmission over the Internet. In this procedure, messages are transmitted between two consumers. Some of the advantages of instant messaging include its free usage, ease of use, and widespread availability on different platforms and devices.
On the basis of types, the instant messaging market can be categorized as official accounts, content filters and themes, sticker sales, subscription, partnerships, in app purchase and advertising. On the basis of providers, the instant messaging market can be categorized as public IM networks, enterprise IM networks, IM management and security vendors, and mobile messaging. The mobile messaging segment is growing with a significant rate, due to strong adoption of mobile technology. The Enterprise IM network segment is also growing with a considerable rate, due to increased adoption of enterprise-grade functionality and security by the organizations.
The fact that the features of instant messaging applications differ with those of traditional SMS texts, is the major reason behind the growth of the global instant messaging market. Unlike the traditional SMS chats, the users have freedom in terms of the length of the message. The lengthy chats in instant messaging can be instantly received by the user on the other side.
The instant messaging market has experienced significant growth over the recent years. China’s WeChat and Japan’s LINE has increased the number of its users up to over 500 million, within two years of their launch. The growth of instant messaging market is directly dependent on users, who have higher disposable income, access to smartphones, and access to 3G/4G services.
Nokia users are involved in the use of rich communications suite (RCS), which provides an inbuilt instant messaging experience to its users. An inbuilt address book along with free calls and messages is facilitated by the rich communications suite. Mobile operators are continuing to work on rich communications suite, which is further driving the growth of the global IM market.
The growth of instant messaging market is influenced by the facility to express human characteristics in messaging itself. The instant messaging applications are focusing on developing innovative IM platform, which include emotions, security, and artificial intelligence (AI). The popularity of location-based dating apps, such as Tinder and online dating applications including Match are further driving the growth of the global instant messaging market.
Applications such as Snapchat have added security feature that destroys the messages and videos, in case of any suspicious activity. When Snapchat identifies a suspicious activity, it blocks the internet neighborhood, where the risk originated initially, even at the risk of affecting consumers who are not involved in the suspicious activity. Similarly, BBM, Telegram, and Ansa application provide control over user settings and extremely secure communication. The Ansa application allows users to communicate off the record, i.e, it deletes the full conversations automatically. The synced deletion feature in the Ansa app deletes the photos or videos automatically in few seconds, after the receiver reads them.
In 2014, Asia-Pacific dominated the global instant messaging market in terms of effective monetization and innovation. However, the lack of internet connectivity and lower disposable incomes in the rural areas of developing economies are likely to obstruct the growth of the global instant messaging market. WhatsApp Inc, LINE Corporation, Tencent Inc., Viber Media S.à r.l., Skype, BlackBerry, Kakao Corp and KIK INTERACTIVE INC., are some of the global competitors of the global instant messaging market.
Report Coverage
- Provides comprehensive understanding of the market with the help of informed market outlook, opportunities, challenges, trends, size and growth, competitive analysis, major competitors and Porter analysis
- Identifies the key drivers of growth and challenges of the key industry players. Also, assesses the future impact of the propellants and restraints on the market
- Uncovers potential demands in the market
- Porter analysis identifies competitive forces within the market
- Provides information on the historical and current market size and the future potential of the market
- Provides sizes of key regional markets using yardsticks of processes, segments, products, end user and technology, etc (as applicable)
- Highlights the competitive scenario of the market, major competitors, market share, benchmarking, investments and merger & acquisitions
- Provides profiles of major competitors of the market including details of their operations, product and services, recent developments and key financial metrics. Profiles provide better understanding of competition as well as the demands of the market.
