Messengers: mobile media number 1
The era of instant messengers began about 20 years ago. In 1996, high school students from Tel Aviv founded the Mirabilis company and released what was then called the ICQ instant messenger. About what has changed since then, what is happening in the market of instant messengers, and how it will evolve in the future - read our article.
Then, twenty years ago, the users did not have much means of communication. Social networks in our usual form has not yet been, and communication in the network went by mail, in web chats, on forums and even in guest books. It was not very convenient and structured, so the appearance of a simple, functional and understandable messenger was perceived by the users with a bang. Two years later, ICQ bought the American company AOL for $ 400 million, and at its peak (in 2001), the messenger had over 100 million registered users.
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Ten more years passed, and ICQ lost much of its audience, and many other instant messengers replaced it, helping people to communicate with each other. Now the market has six leading applications and a dozen catching up, and every day there are more and more new.
What is behind the current revolution of messengers? The first and strongest of the new wave chats is WhatsApp, made by a native of Ukraine, Jan Kum , who from the outset declared cheapness to be his main advantage. WhatsApp has become a convenient alternative to relatively expensive SMS and MMS.
The messenger was made with an eye on quick, easy and affordable communication with any contact, regardless of its geographic location. And it worked: now WhatsApp is the most popular instant messenger with almost a billion people, and it continues to grow in emerging markets like Brazil or India, where mobile-only users no longer see the point of using SMS.
The second factor that led to the enormous proliferation of instant messengers was the widespread proliferation of mobile devices and the availability of mobile Internet. Last year 1 billion smartphones were sold in the world. Access to the Network from mobile devices is no longer some kind of exotic or privilege of residents of developed countries, but the standard of existence even in very rich countries.
For many users, especially in emerging markets, a smartphone or tablet is the only computer device. The Android One initiative, which now covers two dozen manufacturers, in which $ 100 worth of devices are manufactured for developing countries, has reached 1.2 billion people in 2 years! “More and more people are buying their first smartphone, and for many it will be their first computer,” says Jen Fitzpatrick, vice president of Google. All these people and devices are constantly in touch, and they need communication more than ever. That's where billions of audiences from leading applications come from, that's where 27 billion messages came from in 2013 and 71 billion from 2015.
Finally, instant messengers are convenient. This is not only one-on-one communication — it is sometimes group chat, work correspondence, files, and pictures. Each of the messengers is different in one way or another functionality. Recall Snapchat, which has more than 200 million users and is now valued at least at $ 19 billion. Its functionality is disappearing messages and pictures. This function (primarily used for sexting , sending personal photos, messages of intimate content) is in demand among adolescents - and as a result, 60% of Americans aged 13 to 34 years old are active messenger users. And, although there are more popular products among teenagers (for example, Facebook and Instagram), Snapchat has already gained a reputation as a better service for accessing millennials . All advertisers already understand: if you want to reach American teenagers on a targeted basis - go to Snapchat. They are all there, actively using the service, are involved in what is happening in the messenger.
Naturally, it all worked together. Free messages, mobile version, many different functions were separately. The main role was played by all the factors together: convenient cross-platform clients, interesting and constantly evolving functionality (for example, access to the phone book of WhatsApp, push notifications), a critical mass of users. And now the messengers have become the number one media on mobile devices, in a very convenient way to communicate with all the world. How will they develop further?
“Messengers will continue to grow into functionality. Look at the combines that Asian messengers have turned into. Look at the platform that Facebook began to build on the basis of its Messenger application ”, - Igor Magazin, founder of Viber.
Seeing how certain functions are becoming popular with competitors, the most popular instant messengers are increasingly turning into multifunctional platforms. Facebook Messenger is not just correspondence with colleagues and friends on a social network. These are payments, games, video calls, location, communication with companies and a platform for developers. LINE is not only messages and stickers (which, by the way, have become a separate, very profitable economy both for developers / artists and for the company itself). The company has already introduced several applications for everyday life, united by the common theme “Life”. For example, LINE Pay payment system, LINE TAXI taxi call service and Line WOW food delivery service, these are business accounts and LIVE CAST video broadcasts. Yo, the simplest one-word messenger, somehow imperceptibly turned into a platform for developers, opening their own API to them and providing users.
Obviously, the list of services “connected” to messengers will only grow. The services do not just allow monetizing the users of instant messengers - they primarily increase the involvement and open up new channels for business communication with consumers. In fact, instant messengers become relatively closed ecosystems, miniature versions of social networks, where there are company pages, services and, most importantly, all friends and correspondence with them. And all this is not in a long cycle: I went in, flipped through the tape, wrote, read, commented, it was not clear, read it or not, wrote again ... - and right on the go, in a familiar and fast environment, next to friends. Our communication requires quick response, and the messengers here play and will play the main role. These are new functional channels for people and companies.
“By sending messages using the popular messenger, which is used daily to communicate with relatives and friends, the company can discover a new channel of interaction with its customers and increase their level of involvement,” said Juj Massouda, director of strategy and marketing at LINE.
Is the messenger market full enough? Is there a place for a new application, and if so, in what area will it emerge and what functionality does it implement? We want to tell about it in the following article.
Then, twenty years ago, the users did not have much means of communication. Social networks in our usual form has not yet been, and communication in the network went by mail, in web chats, on forums and even in guest books. It was not very convenient and structured, so the appearance of a simple, functional and understandable messenger was perceived by the users with a bang. Two years later, ICQ bought the American company AOL for $ 400 million, and at its peak (in 2001), the messenger had over 100 million registered users.
')
Ten more years passed, and ICQ lost much of its audience, and many other instant messengers replaced it, helping people to communicate with each other. Now the market has six leading applications and a dozen catching up, and every day there are more and more new.
What is behind the current revolution of messengers? The first and strongest of the new wave chats is WhatsApp, made by a native of Ukraine, Jan Kum , who from the outset declared cheapness to be his main advantage. WhatsApp has become a convenient alternative to relatively expensive SMS and MMS.
It is interesting that initially WhatsApp was not a messenger. One day, Ian missed a phone call during a class at the gym because of the ban on mobile phones there, and he came up with the idea of ​​a mobile address book that shows text messages with the status for contacts in it, so friends can know whether you are available or engaged in the hall, whether you are at a meeting, or your battery is running low, but afterwards the message is exactly what the users need, Kum realized.
The messenger was made with an eye on quick, easy and affordable communication with any contact, regardless of its geographic location. And it worked: now WhatsApp is the most popular instant messenger with almost a billion people, and it continues to grow in emerging markets like Brazil or India, where mobile-only users no longer see the point of using SMS.
The second factor that led to the enormous proliferation of instant messengers was the widespread proliferation of mobile devices and the availability of mobile Internet. Last year 1 billion smartphones were sold in the world. Access to the Network from mobile devices is no longer some kind of exotic or privilege of residents of developed countries, but the standard of existence even in very rich countries.
For many users, especially in emerging markets, a smartphone or tablet is the only computer device. The Android One initiative, which now covers two dozen manufacturers, in which $ 100 worth of devices are manufactured for developing countries, has reached 1.2 billion people in 2 years! “More and more people are buying their first smartphone, and for many it will be their first computer,” says Jen Fitzpatrick, vice president of Google. All these people and devices are constantly in touch, and they need communication more than ever. That's where billions of audiences from leading applications come from, that's where 27 billion messages came from in 2013 and 71 billion from 2015.
Finally, instant messengers are convenient. This is not only one-on-one communication — it is sometimes group chat, work correspondence, files, and pictures. Each of the messengers is different in one way or another functionality. Recall Snapchat, which has more than 200 million users and is now valued at least at $ 19 billion. Its functionality is disappearing messages and pictures. This function (primarily used for sexting , sending personal photos, messages of intimate content) is in demand among adolescents - and as a result, 60% of Americans aged 13 to 34 years old are active messenger users. And, although there are more popular products among teenagers (for example, Facebook and Instagram), Snapchat has already gained a reputation as a better service for accessing millennials . All advertisers already understand: if you want to reach American teenagers on a targeted basis - go to Snapchat. They are all there, actively using the service, are involved in what is happening in the messenger.
Naturally, it all worked together. Free messages, mobile version, many different functions were separately. The main role was played by all the factors together: convenient cross-platform clients, interesting and constantly evolving functionality (for example, access to the phone book of WhatsApp, push notifications), a critical mass of users. And now the messengers have become the number one media on mobile devices, in a very convenient way to communicate with all the world. How will they develop further?
“Messengers will continue to grow into functionality. Look at the combines that Asian messengers have turned into. Look at the platform that Facebook began to build on the basis of its Messenger application ”, - Igor Magazin, founder of Viber.
Seeing how certain functions are becoming popular with competitors, the most popular instant messengers are increasingly turning into multifunctional platforms. Facebook Messenger is not just correspondence with colleagues and friends on a social network. These are payments, games, video calls, location, communication with companies and a platform for developers. LINE is not only messages and stickers (which, by the way, have become a separate, very profitable economy both for developers / artists and for the company itself). The company has already introduced several applications for everyday life, united by the common theme “Life”. For example, LINE Pay payment system, LINE TAXI taxi call service and Line WOW food delivery service, these are business accounts and LIVE CAST video broadcasts. Yo, the simplest one-word messenger, somehow imperceptibly turned into a platform for developers, opening their own API to them and providing users.
Obviously, the list of services “connected” to messengers will only grow. The services do not just allow monetizing the users of instant messengers - they primarily increase the involvement and open up new channels for business communication with consumers. In fact, instant messengers become relatively closed ecosystems, miniature versions of social networks, where there are company pages, services and, most importantly, all friends and correspondence with them. And all this is not in a long cycle: I went in, flipped through the tape, wrote, read, commented, it was not clear, read it or not, wrote again ... - and right on the go, in a familiar and fast environment, next to friends. Our communication requires quick response, and the messengers here play and will play the main role. These are new functional channels for people and companies.
“By sending messages using the popular messenger, which is used daily to communicate with relatives and friends, the company can discover a new channel of interaction with its customers and increase their level of involvement,” said Juj Massouda, director of strategy and marketing at LINE.
Is the messenger market full enough? Is there a place for a new application, and if so, in what area will it emerge and what functionality does it implement? We want to tell about it in the following article.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/291204/
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