SMS is far from dead in South Africa — here’s why
SMS services remain crucial for many South Africans to receive one-time PINs, transaction information, and essential communications from service providers.
While data-based messaging platforms like WhatsApp provide South Africans with low-cost messaging solutions, SMS services remain an essential technology in the country and Africa as a whole.
Vodacom’s annual report for 2021 revealed that its SMS revenue had declined due increasing population of over-the-top (OTT) applications such as WhatsApp.
“The risk that telco services will be disintermediated by over-the-top (OTT) applications from Big Tech and other players continue to impact revenue streams like voice and SMS,” Vodacom stated.
“Most prominently, SMS revenues had been affected by OTT messaging services, such as WhatsApp.”
The mobile network operator explained that it had eliminated the short-term risks to its revenue from these services by moving to integrated voice, SMS, and data bundles.
Co-founder and CEO of SMSPortal Charles Stretch spoke to Aki Anastasiou about the future of SMSs in South Africa.
He explained that the company’s SMS volumes remained high with it sending millions of messages each month and that the Covid-19 pandemic had driven a lot of its traffic recently.
“Our target market is South Africa and into Africa. That’s where 80% of our business is,” he said.
“We are sending in excess of a couple hundred million messages a month.”
Stretch explained that Covid-19 related communication — including vaccine registration, reminders, and confirmations — had been a significant driver of its SMS traffic in Africa.
SMSPortal Co-founders and Co-CEOs, Charles Stretch (right) and James Pearce (left). Source: SMSPortal
He added that SMS Portal sends out a few billion messages each year, primarily because “everyone in Africa seems to have a phone”.
He also pointed out that South Africa had approximately 80 million registered cellular numbers.
“So, sending messages is going to win hands down, and the same thing applies to the rest of Africa,” Stretch said.
“It’s the way that people can reach their consumers in Africa.”
A spokesperson from the Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association (WASPA) told MyBroadband that although South Africa’s SMS traffic is low compared to other African nations, it remains one of the country’s main communication channels.
“The SMS market in South Africa is extremely complex yet while low in volume compared to some other countries, particularly in Africa,” they said.
“It remains one of the main channels for communication locally as it is ubiquitous, requires no apps, data connectivity or Wi-Fi, and works even on a standard feature phone.”
The spokesperson explained that many South Africans still rely on SMS services to receive important messages from service providers.
“The types of SMS being sent still include the standard one-time-PINs (OTPs) and alert notifications, particularly from banks linked to transactions and fraud prevention through visibility and OTPs,” they said.
According to the spokesperson, South Africans should see improved message delivery, fewer spam messages, and fewer phishing attempts as the SMS platform evolves with the Protection of Personal Information Act.
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