Messaging apps are incredibly popular right now. WhatsApp is the biggest, with 500 million users, but it's closely followed by major competitors, including Asia-based WeChat and LINE, and Facebook Messenger.
But it's more than just free instant messaging that's driving the boom. Really, it's more than even messaging.
Like social networks before them, these apps are becoming the hubs for everything global smartphone audiences do on mobile. Messaging apps help people connect with one another, share photos, video chat, and, increasingly engage in activities that earn significant revenue for the apps, including playing games, buying digital goods, and even shopping offline.
A new report from BI Intelligence takes a deep dive into the messaging wars, exploring how fast each of the mobile messaging apps are growing, and how many of them are already monetizing their enormous user bases. The report contains our exclusive estimates for monthly active users for all the top global messaging platforms— including some like Snapchat and LINE, which do not release MAU numbers. We describe the similarities and differences between 15 messaging apps, including a case study of Japan-based LINE as an example of how this category can monetize and drive hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.LINE draws revenue from stickers, in-app game purchases, marketing and ad products, and even retail sales of toys based on its popular characters.
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Here are some of the top insights on the mobile messaging wars:
- With elegant distribution through mobile app stores and a simple foundation around the phone's address book, it's relatively easy for new messaging services to sprout and flourish.
- As network effects build, they can quickly amass tens or hundreds of millions of users and put up impressive growth rates. WhatsApp has over 500 million MAUs and LINE recently passed 400 million registered users (and some 229 million monthly active users, according to BI Intelligence estimates).
- They also have huge engagement numbers: New Flurry data show that user sessions on social and messaging apps increased 203% in 2013, a faster leap than for any other app category.
- Messaging apps play a key role in cutting through the noise in the crowded world of mobile content and apps. They are gateways to content, games, communication and increasingly — offline activities.
- Social messages are among the rare mobile push notifications that don't feel spammy and are likely to be among the first read every time they arrive. This is important for impression-based businesses such as advertising.
The report is full of charts and data that can be easily downloaded and put to use.
In full, the report:
- Publishes full MAU numbers on WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE, Snapchat, Viber, Facebook Messenger, and Tango
- Includes a case study on LINE, and how it has built multiple revenue streams — it's not just dependent on stickers
- Discusses why payments might be a huge opportunity for Facebook's WhatsApp
- Explains why no other category has grown as quickly in the last few years
- Compares engagement numbers, in terms of app sessions and minutes-spent, for each of the leading messaging services