Mobile messaging breaks another record

BANGALORE, INDIA: VeriSign, Inc., the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world, has announced another record-breaking quarter for mobile messaging, based on the latest quarterly index of statistics compiled by VeriSign's Messaging and Mobile Media division.

During the second quarter of 2009, VeriSign delivered a total of 94.8 billion A2P/P2P messages across its combined mobile messaging platforms for an overall growth of more than 82 percent from Q2 2008. This corresponds to more than $3.3 billion in revenue enabled for VeriSign's service provider customers, almost double the enabled revenue from Q2 2008.

In total, through its combined platforms, VeriSign delivered 178.8 billion messages worldwide in the first half of 2009. To put this volume into perspective, it translates to 26 messages for every person in the world (roughly 6.7 billion). VeriSign's network also set a single-day record on June 25 by enabling 1.2 billion mobile messages over a 24-hour period, and a one-hour record of 102 million messages between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. PST on that day. The timing of this record coincided with the announcements of the tragic deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett.

"The records set in the second quarter clearly demonstrate the ubiquitous and still-growing presence of mobile messaging in our culture," said Basavaraj Nagaraj, senior manager, Asia Pacific (APAC) product management, for VeriSign's Messaging and Mobile Media division. "People continue to use the power of text messaging not only to communicate and engage with friends, but also to connect about significant events."

Around the world, VeriSign continues to deliver greater reach and value to wireless operators and enterprise customers. This is evident in the signing of major customers in APAC and CALA such as Citycell (Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd.), Knowcross Solutions Pvt. Ltd., and Telcel-Mexico. Through these and other new agreements in Q2, VeriSign has expanded its reach in key markets such as Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan and Phillipines. Currently, the five countries with the most significant traffic volume on VeriSign's platforms generated outside the Americas are from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, and Vietnam. Within the APAC region, Australia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Pakistan have shown the strongest messaging growth on VeriSign's platform in Q2.

Also in Q2 2009, the daily average number of messages enabled by VeriSign's combined mobile messaging platforms (A2P/P2P) broke the 1 billion mark with approximately 1.04 billion messages per day, on average. This represents a 12 percent increase from the previous quarter and an 83 percent rise from Q2 2008. In total, VeriSign delivered 93 billion P2P and 1.8 billion A2P messages in Q2 2009.

Premium content is also on the rise, as content providers adopt industry-sanctioned best practices, such as the Mobile Marketing Association's (MMA) Affiliate Member Program, which works to ensure that all players follow best practices to further improve the consumer mobile experience. VeriSign's Mobile Delivery Gateway (MDG) continues to see positive growth in premium SMS transactions, with a 36.5 percent increase in total messages delivered in Q2 2009 when compared to Q2 2008.

The VeriSign® Inter-Carrier MMS and PictureMail platforms also continued to see strong growth in the volume of MMS traffic carried through its network. When compared to Q2 2008 totals, these two platforms realized a significant rise in traffic volume with an increase of 90 percent and 62 percent in MMS volumes respectively. In total, more than 1.1 billion MMS messages were delivered in Q2 2009.

Finally, VeriSign® Mobile Enterprise Services (VMES) continues to reflect the growing interest in A2P enterprise applications. The addition of new enterprise customers worldwide has helped spur a 20.4 percent quarter-to-quarter increase from Q1 2009 to Q2 2009, and a 27.6 percent increase from Q2 2008 to Q2 2009.

VeriSign's Messaging and Mobile Media Division delivers messages on behalf of carriers and content providers around the world. VeriSign's combined mobile messaging networks (P2P and A2P) connect to more than 700 carriers in over 200 countries and reach more than 3 billion wireless subscribers. VeriSign offers one of the most robust and reliable mobile messaging delivery engines across carrier, enterprise, and media/entertainment networks, generating billions of dollars in revenue for its customers. Together with RealNetworks, Inc. and its affiliates, it powers inter-carrier mobile messaging for eight of the top 10 wireless carriers in North America and other major operators throughout the world.