The size of the mobile business messaging market will reach $78 billion by 2027 from $48 billion in 2022, Juniper Research said.
This 63 percent growth will be driven by enterprise adoption of RCS (Rich Communication Services), with businesses harnessing the end-to-end encryption and verified sender identities RCS provides to reduce messaging fraud.
The RCS messaging protocol that incorporates rich media content, such as high-quality images, videos and carousels, within a smartphone’s default messaging application.
The number of RCS business messages received will increase from 161 billion in 2022 to 639 billion by 2027, as enterprises in industries handling sensitive data, such as banking and healthcare, migrate traffic away from SMS to more secure channels.
While user verification over RCS acts as a first step in messaging fraud prevention, malicious players will increasingly identify ways to bypass this requirement. Firewall vendors need to prioritize the accurate detection of spam content via multimedia messaging, including images and external links.
The US will represent a key growth market for RCS with all tier 1 operators, including AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, supporting rich media messaging solutions. The number of RCS business messages received in the US will surpass 170 billion by 2027, if Apple introduces support for the messaging protocol over iOS within the next 3 years.
“Apple must support RCS to facilitate smooth and secure communications between mobile operating systems. The RCS protocol is likely to be deployed over the existing iMessage interface on iOS devices, in order to capitalise on user familiarity and maximise adoption,” Research author Scarlett Woodford said in a note.
