RCS

Published September 2024

RCS (Rich Communication Service) is the rich messaging platform provided by Google for mobile operators for Android devices, RBM is the business messaging element. From September 2024, it will be available over iPhones/iOS, paving the way for a huge shift in the business messaging landscape.

Given this shift, our data includes two forecast scenarios to future-proof your RCS strategy; Android-only RBM future, and Android + Apple iOS future. A total of over 6 million datapoints.

You get detailed country-level RCS/RBM data for 200 markets, plus our 75-page RCS market report exploring trends and insights, and analysis of the key markets which will accelerate growth globally from 2024 onwards.

A 12 month RCS intelligence subscription costs £4,990 and includes:

  • online access to 6 million searchable datapoints with country-level data for 200 markets
  • RCS market view 2018-2028 (actual data 2018-2023 / 5-year forecasts 2024-2028)
  • 2 alternative forecast scenarios modelled
  • executive market summary
  • 75-page interactive market insight report, with 150,000 accessible chart data points
  • annual data updates
  • 10 x user licences

Or you can buy the RCS market report only for £2,500

  • Data covers 200 markets at country-level / Report delivers global & regional view
  • Data provides on-demand access to 6+ million data points / Report provides access to 150,000+ core data points in the form of interactive chart data
  • Both data & report covers period 2018-2028 (Actual data 2018-2023, forecasts 2024-2028)
  • Both data & report includes 2 forecasts scenarios modelled (including and excluding impact of Apple iOS)
  • Data includes;
    • A comprehensive global, and national view of RCS and RBM, split out by mobile operator for outbound (A2P) traffic, inbound (P2A) traffic, and conversational traffic, and spend for all traffic types
    • Traffic and spend is split out by use case, and that is further divided by sector, as well as customer care and conversational commerce
    • RCS users, and opted-in RBM users complete our granular view of the channel

RCS data includes 5 core datasets:

  • RBM traffic & spend (Android only)
  • RBM traffic & spend (Android + Apple iOS)
  • RBM traffic & spend by mobile operator – Android only (update)
  • RBM traffic & spend by mobile operator – Android + Apple iOS (update)
  • RBM traffic & spend by Google Guest Cloud (update)

RBM traffic & spend split out by:

Traffic type –

  • A2P basic/branded message
  • A2P single message
  • A2P conversation
  • P2A message
  • P2A conversation

Category – conversational service (customer care) & conversational commerce

Use case – authentication, marketing, services & utility

Use case split out by sector

Spend split out by traffic type / category / use case

AI insights on RBM data

Markets covered: Our datasets include individual market data for the top 200 markets from around the world, split out by mobile operators that have launched RCS/RBM. Top 20 RBM markets by spend are projected to be Argentina / Brazil / Canada / China / Colombia / France / Germany / Greece / India / Italy / Japan / Mexico / Nigeria / Poland / Russia / Saudi Arabia / South Africa / Spain / United Kingdom / USA.

User breakdown: For each of the 200 markets we cover, our RCS user data is split by total unique mobile users (UMUs) / total mobile subscriptions / total RCS users / total RBM users / RBM users as % of total RCS users / RBM users as % of relevant smartphone OS / RBM users as % of total UMUs / RCS users by opt-in by market vertical.

Traffic split by: A2P (outbound) messages / A2P conversations / P2A (inbound) messages / P2A conversations / customer care + conversational commerce.

For RBM traffic types we apply 4 use cases: Authentication, Marketing, Services, and Utility.

Sectors covered: Automotive / Broadcasters / Charity / Education / Enterprise software / Finance / Gambling / Healthcare / Internet streaming / Leisure & entertainment / Public services / Restaurants & fast-food / Retail & eCommerce / Social media & chat / Telecoms / Transport & logistics / Travel & tourism / Utilities / Other

Spend split by: Our spend data is based on our traffic data (see breakdown above). To achieve spend figures for each market, we apply the relevant RCS per message and conversation rates per market that we receive through our extensive on-going research. Spend also split by value chain: Google / mobile operators / aggregators.

Companies researched: Our RCS data is the most accurate available in the marketplace because of our presence and active participation within the Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) RCS Working Groups. We received data and insight from 130 companies, including 50 mobile operators and *0 aggregators, CSPs, vendors, hub providers, interconnect providers, and firewall providers. Of these 290, approximately two-thirds operate within RCS. Companies from the RCS ecosystem who have contributed to our research include:

AI Cross / Arelion / AT&T / Auronix / Beep / BICS / Bouygues Telecom / BT/EE / Cellusys / Cheetah Mobile / China Mobile International / China Unicom . Cisco / Commify / Comviva / Deutsche Telekom / Dimoco / Direqt / Enabld / Fonix Mobile / GMS / Google / GTC / GTS / Gupshup / Infobip / Interop Technologies / Intertron Mobile / JT Global / Kaleyra / Karix / Lanck Telecom / Mavenir / MEF / MessageMedia / Mira Networks / Mitto / Mobivity / Monty Mobile / Movitext / MTN Group /Myriad Group / NTH Mobile / O2 / Ooredoo / Orange / Out There Media / RD Com / RealNetworks / Route Mobile / Salesforce / Samsung / Sinch / SoftBank Corp. / Soprano / Summit Tech / Sunrise / Swisscom / Synchronoss / Syniverse / Tanla / Tata / Telefonica Argentina / Telefonica Group / Telefonica Movistar / Telenor / Telesign / Telia / Three / TIWS / Twilio / TWW Brasil / Tyntec / Viber / Vodafone / Vonage / WhatsApp / WIT / Zain / Zenvia Mobile.

  • RBM traffic & spend by mobile operator – Android only (published 2H 2024)
  • RBM traffic & spend by mobile operator – Android + Apple iOS (published 2H 2024)
  • RBM traffic & spend by Google Guest Cloud (published 2H 2024)

Key findings from the above will also be added as new sections to interactive market report

What Our Clients Say…

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