It’s hard for externals to know how popular a particular messaging service is. Yes all your friends might use it, but does the public at large? And is it larger, or smaller than other similar services?
Telecom, a well-named New Zealand provider of Internet and mobile service has lifted the curtain as to what its smartphone users are using to stay in touch. The data is brilliant, as it provides a direct window into consumer usage patters, and, the kicker, it directly compares rival services and companies.
The data, taken from Telecom mobile customers in a one month period (May, 2013):
- 150,000 used Apple’s iMessage service
- 140,000 used Facebook messenger
- 78,000 used Viber
- 35,000 used Microsoft Live Messenger
- 32,000 used Microsoft Skype
- 25,000 used Google Talk
- 23,000 used WhatsApp messenger
iMessage over Facebook! Viber over Skype! Google Talk ranking so low! WhatsApp barely showing up at all! To see iMessage isn’t a surprise. Apple recently announced that users had sent 800 billion messages through the service. WhatsApp recently announced that its users send over 27 billion messages per day.
Quite obviously, mobile use demands different communication patterns than desktop computer usage; the Skype number wouldn’t be as small if all messaging usage across platforms was counted for each customer. However, in the mobile realm, it’s more than interesting that Apple has managed to top the Facebook behemoth.
The other question asked by the above data is how country specific it may be; would Viber rank as high in Spain, or California? I doubt it. Still, the data is damned interesting. Read it again. Then drop knowledge on your coworkers.
Top Image Credit: Benedict Adam
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.