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Tag: ChatON

  • Messaging Apps Are Taking Over Mobile Messaging

    Over the past two years, mobile messaging apps such as WhatsApp and SnapChat have become some of the most popular mobile apps around. Signs are even appearing that the messaging app segment may be taking the place of traditional social media among teens and young people.

    In addition to social media, messaging apps are also challenging traditional SMS and MMS as the messaging vehicles of choice on mobile platforms. Market research firm Juniper Research today issued a report predicting that messaging apps will make up three-quarters of the entire mobile messaging market by 2018. This would account for an estimated 63 trillion messages.

    This doesn’t mean, though, that messaging apps will be making the billions that were raked in for overpriced SMS. Juniper estimates that even though these apps will make up 75% of the market they will only bring in 2% of the revenue generated by the mobile messaging market – about $3 billion.

    This relatively low revenue may be due to a number of factors. The report points out that messaging apps are often used in conjunction with images, emoticons, and other filler that doesn’t convey a message as efficiently as an SMS could. Juniper also found that young people are more likely to use multiple messaging apps on the same device.

    To increase revenue, the report sees messaging apps using a wide variety of monetization schemes. Though advertising and subscriptions add provide constant revenue, other apps may experiment with games and microtransactions to effectively monetize their high volume of messages.

    Image via WhatsApp

  • Samsung’s ChatON Messaging App Hits 100 Million Users

    Samsung’s ChatON Messaging App Hits 100 Million Users

    Samsung today announced that 100 million smartphone users are now also using its ChatON messaging app. The app had hit 50 million users just this past May after having launched in 2011. The news comes as mobile messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Snapchat have become hits in the mobile app space. Even BlackBerry Messenger saw a multitude of downloads when it recently launched for Android devices.

    Samsung is attributing the significant and rapid growth of ChatON to the app’s availability internationally and on various platforms, including iOS and PC. The reality, though, is much simpler.

    The ChatON app is not popular in Apple’s App Store or on the PC. Samsung admits that much of the app’s success is due to it being the default messaging app that comes pre-loaded on its latest Galaxy-branded devices. The Galaxy S III, launched just over one year ago, was the first Samsung device to come with ChatON preinstalled. Following that the Galaxy Note II, Galaxy S 4, and the Galaxy Camera all came with the app. The new Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear smart watch will also have ChatON messaging.

    As Samsung points to ChatON growth in markets such as the U.S., China, and India it is, in reality, pointing to the growth in Galaxy device sales in those same markets. Even so, ChatON is one of the most diverse messaging apps currently available, with 63 different languages supported and a variety of region-specific features.