Mobile messaging volume grows 10 percent in Q3

Worldwide mobile messaging volume increased close to 10 percent in the third quarter according to Internet infrastructure services provider VeriSign, which notes the period also witnessed the emergence of several new trends including messaging initiatives tied to social and political change and marketing, mobile messaging for charitable donations and a significant growth in mobile messaging by enterprises and financial institutions. In all, VeriSign's mobile messaging networks enabled more than 58.3 billion messages in Q3, up from 52 billion in the previous quarter [1]. VeriSign facilitated an average of 634 million messages per day during the third quarter, compared to 572 million messages per day the previous quarter and 280 million messages per day in Q3 2007. VeriSign adds it remains on track to enable close to 200 billion total messages during 2008, which equates to operator revenues of more than $7 billion.

From Jan. 1 through Sept. 30, VeriSign's combined mobile messaging networks delivered 153 billion total messages, representing a 142 percent increase year-over-year and on pace to more than double last year's total of 95.9 billion mobile messages. In addition, on Sept. 5 VeriSign posted a single-day record by enabling 702 million texts over a 24-hour period and a one-hour record of 48 million messages. The firm attributes the surge in part to growing interest from enterprises and financial institutions: From Q3 2007 to Q3 2008, the total volume of messages rose from 129 to 227 million, a 115 percent jump. In addition, VeriSign's Mobile Banking platform enjoyed a 35 percent increase in messaging traffic from the second quarter of 2008 to the third quarter. Person-to-Person/Application-to-Person messages like news alerts, ringtones, promotional video clips and enterprise messages also grew from approximately 572 million messages in Q2 2008 to about 634 million messages in Q3, an increase of nearly 10 percent.

For more on VeriSign's Q3 messaging metrics:
- read this release [2]

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