3 billion users worth paying attention to

Social networks are a good example as they would all have you believe they “own” their region or a particular demographic, in most cases so you’ll spend your brand’s cash with them. This is also due to each claiming membership momentum in what are monumental stakes revenue wise.

Another space is mobile. Some predictions are outlandish to the point of being laughable. Others clearly peddle their own vested interests, and lately there’s a huge amount around the iPhone and how it’s revolutionising the way consumers behave…partly true, as it will eventually. Let’s not forget though that their market share is tiny in comparison to other handsets (see Is the iPhone the only handset that marketers should be focussing on?).

However, one stat that is worth talking about is that, globally, 3 billion people are using SMS. That is worth talking about.

Let’s look a bit more deeply at that number. SMS texting is the most widely used data application on the planet. The active user base of SMS is three times the total number of computers.

SMS text messaging is used by over twice the number of people who use the internet.

So where does email fit in? And here’s a stat that is new to me - the global user base of SMS shot past email total user base seven years ago and today there are 2.5 times as many people on the planet who send messages using their phones, than send messages via the email system. Total email user base is 1.3 billion.

SMS is a pervasive medium

The mobile phone is one of the first things we see when we wake up and can be the last thing we see before we go to sleep…a late SMS text message arrives. Gotta read it. Could be important.

SMS is serious for brands

Kids who don’t qualify for credit cards, make payments at McDonalds and Pizza Hut and inside Habbo Hotel, using their mobile phones. In most parts of Africa and many parts of Asia and Latin America, if you want to communicate with another person, you use your mobile phone.

As a brand you need to understand SMS. It’s is not like email, not like Twitter or the Blackberry. SMS is a different powerful communication method that we all can use in work and play. And 3 billlion people already do.

 

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