The Application to Person (A2P) messaging market expansion in the Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at a calculated average of 6.3% and aggregate $26.31 billion by 2022 (Infoholic Research, 2016). All reliable authentication and notifications, marketing messages especially in the banking, finance and healthcare industries are the key contributors of the growth of this market. That’s not all, brand building and awareness efforts have also been utilizing traditional messaging services (SMS) to convey messages to capture an audience with smartphone users and non-smartphone users.

All these years, Europe and North America have been at the forefront of the A2P messaging market and benefiting from it. Although Asia-Pacific always had a huge opportunity to monetize through initial investments, it was always overlooked to cater the ever-evolving digital and data services. Recently, the digital transformation and innovation destinations in the region have shed a spotlight over the future Telco services - especially A2P messaging.

Multinational companies expanding their operations to Asia-Pacific markets have expressed their appetite in the region. The recent occurrences have shifted focus to technology and innovation, startups and other businesses and Asia Pacific has now begun to establish a reputation to power successful businesses. These emerging innovations have drawn the attention of investors and renowned companies from all parts of the world, to the Asia-Pacific region. With the continued growth of the innovation hubs in APAC and the influx of new businesses underpinned by language skills and low real estate costs, A2P messaging market and the usage of Telco services have resurfaced and grown in demand further increasing the mobile subscriber base in the near future.

Interestingly, although markets have a high mobile phone penetration, the usage of traditional Telco services in the Asia-Pacific region can be expected to grow especially because all subscribers who have access to phones, do not have access to internet or data services . Contributing to the A2P revenue generating potential in APAC, mobile banking, maturing businesses, legal framework changes and mobile retailing are a few aspects of revenue growth for Telcos.

A positive ripple effect through digital service eruption

The explosive growth of digital services such as mobile banking and other value added services provided online has caused people to shift to transactions at the ease of their fingertips. Mobile transactional services cause security concerns which then demand for two-factor authentication or OTPs. For Telcos, this means a growth in the A2P messaging market as a wider spectrum of applications start to depend on traditional messaging services.

The ever-flourishing nature of mobile retailers, food delivery services and taxi services demand messages to be delivered to customers regarding offers, launches, order confirmations and dispatches. With a clear market growth of 64% year on year and mobile retail being the fastest growing digital channel in Asia Pacific would result in a pleasant spike of profits for telecom operators.

Overflowing revenue only happens through happy customers

Most businesses when they mature, tend to shift to a people-led approach where their main focus lies on customer services, requires more infrastructure and connectivity and demands operational efficiency especially in CRM-based services. Telcos have a clear cut path to help businesses reduce their cost on marketing automation tools and support them with bulk SMS, one way messaging and two-way messaging to facilitate customer engagement. By offering business owners cost-effective options and helping them improve and scale their customer services, Telcos sure can expect an inflow of revenue in the years to come.

An innovation hub for multinationals, an opportunity for Telcos

Countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India are now considered innovation hubs for IT-BPM sectors. The availability of high skilled, English speaking and literate individuals contribute to the fact that the IT-BPM industries of Asia Pacific region will only evolve and never will diminish. Alongside this, real estate costs, quality electricity and offices facilitated with shared workspaces, cafes, libraries and even accommodation, foreign markets are slowly settling in for remote operations. With this change in the IT-BPM sector of Asia Pacific region, Telcos will have a plethora of opportunities to serve the emerging market with A2P messaging, infrastructure and data and digital services and can foresee a significant growth in their subscriber base.

All these facts and figures are well and true until it actually benefits a Telco. This is an area that Telcos have neglected and also forgotten that can contribute to millions of dollars in APAC. We believe if Telcos are guided in the correct direction with a ground-breaking strategy, concept and a roadmap, they can achieve the ultimate goal of multiplying their overall revenue 10X.

Is it worth missing the boat?

Telcos have many exceptionally valuable but underutilized initial investments that have an underlying potential to generate and multiply revenue. With decades of experience and success in the industry, we know exactly how to exercise old assets to multiply revenue 10x with hSenid CPaaS. As your technology partner, we offer continuous support, data-driven decisions and unparalleled expertise enabling you to build a wider digital community locally and globally, reaping rich rewards. It is not just about infrastructure, together with our Strategic Telco partner, we strategize and execute ensuring lifelong success and 10X Revenue.