Text messaging usage rises by almost 69% in Brazil generating 964 million BRL in revenues for local operators

The 10th edition of MAVAM – the Acision Mobile Value Added Service (VAS) Monitor released today, reveals that more mobile phone users in Brazil are effectively adopting SMS as a means of communication. The new research indicates that over the last quarter (Q4 2011), an average of 81 text messages are sent per user, per month, compared with 48 messages per user, per month in Q4 2010.

This growth in text messaging uptake means that SMS now represents 37.1% of total VAS revenues in Brazil, totaling close to 1 billion BRL in 3Q11. One of the main reasons for this rise in usage has been identified as new competitive pricing models and packages offered by operators.

To emphasize how text messaging can be used over and above a core basic service, this edition of MAVAM presented respondents with 13 new personalized messaging services, which can enrich the messaging experience. The responses to these services, including SMS Auto-signature Auto-Reply, Message Copy, Multi-SIM, SMS Alias and Divert, were highly positive with consumers stating they would be willing to use SMS receipt notifications (86%), multiple SIM cards (85%), reminders (82%), aliases (82%) and message storage from the cloud (80%).

Users said they are also willing to pay for personalized messaging services. Of the many options available, people are willing to pay for reminders (44%), automatic SMS forwarding to an e-mail account (43%), multiple SIM cards (43%), cloud storage (43%) and SMS divert (41%). For these five services, the average price respondents are willing to pay is between 3.4 BRL and 3.8 BRL. Message-forwarding and cloud storage services attracted the highest prices (5 BRL per month) and were among the services most often cited by respondents.

The study also revealed the type of messaging services preferred by users based on the importance and urgency of delivery of the message. For example, SMS is believed to be the most reliable service by corporate users, with 39% of users preferring to communicate via SMS to exchange messages with other work colleagues and 40% to deal with work issues.  Instant Messaging services, on the other hand, are only a preferred corporate communication tool for 20% of users.

"The messaging market still has significant room for growth in Brazil", said Vancrei Oliveira, Acision’s Senior Vice President and General Manager for Latin America. "As well as offering new pricing models to increase SMS usage, operators should look to provide personalized messaging features, such as those reflected in MAVAM and can be delivered through the Acision Cloud.  This will ensure messaging is more functional and relevant to user but can also generate significant revenue opportunities for the operator. 

“Like the rest of the world, Brazil saw an increase in adoption of smartphones in 2011 as well as advances in mobile broadband. With these changes, users are increasing likely to use new applications and social networks to communicate. This has also led to questions about the possible impact of Instant Messaging applications, such as BlackBerry Messenger, WhatsApp and Facebook Chat, on SMS usage. While Instant Messaging has increased, with 44% of people interviewed adopting the service, it is concentrated among customers with access to data packages and, more frequently, people with smartphones. The Facebook Chat application registered the highest user levels (29% of Instant Messaging users), with Twitter in second place (20%).

“While Instant Messaging relies heavily on a data connection of both the sender and receiver of a message, SMS does not face these restrictions and is reliable, ubiquitous, and instantaneous in nature, working globally across any mobile device and network. We believe the number of customers and the volume of text messages will continue to go up globally this year supported by innovations in personalized messaging, IP messaging, new delivery methods such as the cloud, as well as enterprise messaging – where brands will directly connect with consumers via SMS,” concluded Oliveira.