Record volume of text messages signals ‘golden age’ for SMS business communications
Esendex carries record number of texts in three consecutive months, up 46% year on year
Follows new contracts with Specsavers, IKEA and the French government
18 March 2013, Nottingham, UK – Smartphone messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Line and iMessage are booming amongst consumers, but for businesses it is text message communications that are taking off, according to Esendex, which is breaking records for the number of text messages carried over its network.
Esendex consecutively sent more text messages on behalf of organisations in December, January and February than any time in its 12 year history, representing a 46% increase in volumes year on year. The company, which has a presence in Europe, Australia and the US, saw fastest growth in France, which has seen message volumes for the last six months increase by 96% year on year.
In the past quarter Esendex has signed new contracts with businesses such as Specsavers, IKEA and the French government. Esendex is on course to achieve a £10 million turnover for this financial year (ends June 2013), up 23% from 2012/13. The company has a roadmap to become a £50 million business in five years.
According to Julian Hucker, CEO and co-founder of Esendex, SMS is yet to come into its ‘golden age’, despite the technology being 20 years old. “SMS is a mature technology for consumer to consumer communications, but for many it’s just coming into its own for business communications,” he says. “Consumers are no longer ‘tethered’ to a landline phone or PC, so want to communicate when they’re on the move – hence the growth of OTT. However, SMS is the only ubiquitous mobile messaging platform and is reliable and low cost, so ideal for large scale business communications. OTT might be good for P2P, but it falls short in A2P messaging, which Juniper Research estimates will be greater than P2P by 2016.
“Esendex is twelve years old, but the current rate of growth is unprecedented. Every month we’re carrying more SMS volumes than before and it’s not just growth from expansion into new markets – the UK is also continuing to grow and we’re seeing businesses, charities and the public sector really getting value from SMS,” adds Julian Hucker.
“Currently business SMS volumes for the industry are driven by marketing, but our business is built around ‘business critical’ messaging, such as informing customers about deliveries or appointments, or communicating with employees. In these scenarios, knowing the message has been delivered is paramount, which embeds SMS into the value chain. This is where we see the biggest area of growth in volumes and margins for operators to provide a quality service.”
About Esendex
Esendex, the business SMS experts, provide over 16,000 companies around the world with a fast, reliable and cost-effective way of keeping in touch with their customers and staff.
Young, entrepreneurial, ambitious and at the forefront of this rapidly growing market, the company expects turnover to double to £20m within the next three years.
With direct connections to all the mobile networks and a highly reliable in-house SMS platform, Esendex provides high quality, mission-critical business messaging systems to the likes of Ocado, Virgin Media and Gatwick Airport.
Esendex is independently owned and has operations in the UK, Ireland, Spain, France, Germany, the US and Australia.
For more information, please visit Esendex on www.esendex.co.uk or follow Esendex on Twitter @esendex.
