Rich Communication Services Market - Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2018-2028

In 2022, the Global Rich Communication Services (RCS) Market reached a valuation of USD 7.25 billion and is poised for significant growth in the forecast period, expected to achieve a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.35% through 2028. Businesses are progressively turning to messaging platforms as a means of communicating with their customers, and RCS offers a host of features to enhance customer communication.

RCS introduces several features that can contribute to improving customer interactions, including read receipts and typing indicators. These elements provide businesses with valuable insights into customer engagement, enabling them to gauge message reception and response times, ultimately enhancing the quality of customer communication.

One of the noteworthy advantages of RCS is its encryption of messages, safeguarding them from unauthorized access. This security feature is of paramount importance for both businesses and individuals who need to transmit sensitive information through messaging platforms. by ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of messages, RCS bolsters data protection, instilling trust in customers and facilitating secure exchanges of critical information.

Key Market Drivers

Technological Advancements

Text messaging is still the most direct and widely used form of communication. As a result, two-way automated enterprise-to-person text messaging, known as A2P mobile messaging, has become essential for businesses. Rich Communication Services (RCS) is a successor to SMS that supports read receipts, typing indicators, improved group chats, and high-quality images. RCS relies on a standard called Universal Profile, which defines a way to tell other phones that it can spend and receive RCS. Various prominent smartphone vendors and telecom operators are increasingly developing, investing, and offering RCS platforms. For instance, in November 2019, Google rolled out RCS in the United Kingdom and France. In addition to this, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon announced that they are also looking to replace SMS with RCS by 2020, and technology will be built on an RCS implementation for Android under the Cross-Carrier Messaging Initiative (CCMI) where Google will not be involved. Despite the growing popularity of OTT messaging apps, SMS is still prevalent amongst the population. Even though a significant number of users have been declining since the last few years due to various other messaging apps, but SMS remains one of the prominent sources of messaging, information sharing, advertising, and CRM tool. According to Salesforce, text messages have a 98% open rate, and about 90% of the recipients open SMS messages within three minutes. Moreover, text messages are nearly 56 times more affordable compared to cost-per-click advertising such as Adwords, according to Burst SMS. Also, text messages command a 10% click-through rate; owing to such cost-effective means, the demand for SMS in terms of information dissemination is significantly high.

Consumer Demand for Enhanced Messaging

Consumers were increasingly looking for richer and more interactive messaging experiences beyond basic SMS. RCS offers features such as group chat, read receipts, typing indicators, and multimedia sharing that meet these demands. RCS provides opportunities for businesses to engage with customers through interactive, branded messages. Companies can use RCS for marketing, customer support, and e-commerce, which was expected to drive adoption among enterprises. Efforts to standardize RCS across different carriers and devices were expected to make it more appealing. Interoperability ensures that RCS messages work seamlessly between users on different networks and devices. The integration of RCS into popular messaging apps and operating systems can drive adoption. Android Messages, for example, integrated RCS support into its app, potentially expanding the user base. RCS was expected to offer improved security and encryption compared to SMS, which can attract users who value data privacy. The support and promotion of RCS by mobile carriers play a crucial role in its adoption. Carriers may incentivize users to switch to RCS-compatible devices and plans. As RCS was not yet universally available worldwide in 2021, expansion efforts in different regions were expected to drive market growth.

5G Rollout

The rollout of 5G networks was anticipated to support the growth of RCS by providing faster and more reliable connections for multimedia messaging. The competitive dynamics among messaging app providers, mobile device manufacturers, and mobile carriers could influence the adoption of RCS. Partnerships and alliances between these stakeholders may shape the market. Regulations related to messaging and data privacy can impact the RCS market. Compliance with regulations may affect how RCS is used for business purposes.

Key Market Challenges

Slow Adoption and Fragmentation

One of the primary challenges was the slow adoption of RCS, especially in comparison to the widespread use of traditional SMS and popular messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Additionally, the fragmentation of the RCS ecosystem with different carriers and messaging apps implementing RCS at varying rates hindered its adoption. Achieving full interoperability between different RCS implementations by various carriers and device manufacturers was a challenge. Inconsistent support for RCS features across networks and devices made it less reliable for users. RCS faced fierce competition from established messaging platforms like WhatsApp, WeChat, and Facebook Messenger. These platforms had large user bases and offered similar features, making it difficult for RCS to gain a foothold. While RCS offered enhanced features, concerns about data privacy and security remained. Ensuring the privacy of messages and user data was a challenge, especially as RCS was used for business messaging and transactions. Regulatory challenges and compliance with data protection laws and regulations varied across regions and countries. Navigating these regulatory hurdles could be complex for RCS service providers.

Cost and Revenue Models:

Developing and maintaining RCS infrastructure, including servers and software, could be expensive for carriers and businesses. Finding sustainable revenue models, such as monetizing business RCS services, was a challenge. Many users were unaware of RCS or didn't understand the differences between RCS and SMS. Educating users about the benefits of RCS and how to use it effectively posed a challenge. People are often resistant to change, and convincing users to switch from their existing messaging apps to RCS could be challenging, especially if their contacts were not using RCS. Carriers needed to invest in network upgrades to support RCS features fully. The rollout of RCS was dependent on the readiness of carrier networks, which could be time-consuming and costly.The RCS market faced competition from other communication technologies, such as over-the-top (OTT) messaging apps and emerging technologies like WebRTC and VoIP services, which offered alternative means of communication.

Key Market Trends

Continued Expansion

RCS adoption was expected to continue expanding globally as more mobile carriers and messaging app providers embraced the technology. Expanding into new regions and markets was a prominent trend. RCS was increasingly used by businesses for customer engagement, marketing, and customer support. Brands and enterprises were leveraging RCS to send rich, interactive messages to customers, including product catalogs, appointment reminders, and one-click purchases. RCS was evolving to offer even more features and capabilities, such as chatbots, payment integrations, and appointment scheduling. These enhancements made RCS a more versatile platform for both personal and business communication. Efforts to improve interoperability between different RCS implementations were ongoing. This trend aimed to ensure that RCS messages worked seamlessly across different networks and devices.

RCS for Customer Service

Customer service and support were emerging as a key use case for RCS. Many companies were exploring RCS-based customer service solutions, including automated responses and real-time agent interactions. The importance of data security and privacy was a growing trend in the RCS market. Users and businesses were increasingly concerned about the security of their RCS messages, leading to efforts to enhance encryption and privacy controls. Mobile carriers, messaging app providers, and technology companies were forming partnerships and alliances to promote RCS adoption. These collaborations aimed to accelerate the rollout of RCS services and improve the overall user experience.

Integration with AI and Chatbots

Integration with artificial intelligence (AI) and chatbots was becoming more common. This allowed for automated responses, improved customer interactions, and personalized messaging experiences. The rollout of 5G networks was expected to boost RCS adoption by providing faster and more reliable connections for multimedia messaging. RCS was seen as a complementary technology to 5G. RCS supported rich media sharing, including high-quality images, videos, and documents. This trend was driving its adoption in various industries, such as media and entertainment, e-commerce, and healthcare.

Multi-Device Support:

RCS was working on supporting messaging across multiple devices seamlessly. This trend aimed to provide users with a consistent messaging experience on smartphones, tablets, and desktops. RCS was experimenting with new user interface designs and features to enhance the user experience, including improved contact management and message organization.

Segmental Insights

Enterprise Size Insights

The global rich communication services market was dominated by the large enterprises segment, and is expected to maintain this trend during the forecast period as the implementation of rich communication service is further helping IT & telecommunication teams of large enterprises to change the way of communication with messaging, which can deliver rich content. As the messaging and communicating needs are changing, they do not cope well with the traditional way of messaging in large enterprises or campus environments. Therefore, rich communication service implementation is growing at a rapid pace among large enterprises, which provides a dynamic and flexible approach..

Regional Insights

The North America region has established itself as the leader in the Global Rich Communication Services Market with a significant revenue share in 2022. North America dominated the rich communication services market in 2019, owing to high penetration of 5G network and growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) & other smart connected devices in the region. Moreover, surge in need of next-generation messaging service, chatbots shifting the inclination of customer service from conversational interactions, and rich communication service provide opportunities for mobile network operators (MNOs) to set up service on the latest technical advances being developed for the native messaging channel. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to witness the highest growth rate during the rich communication services market forecast period, owing to increasing demand for rich communication service across the region due to the emergence of high-end technologies, such artificial intelligence & 5G network; growing need of sending bulk messages for marketing; and major shift toward digitization by SMEs. Therefore, these factors impact positively on the growth of the market..

Key Market Players

• Google
• Samsung
• Huawei
• AT&T
• Verizon
• T-Mobile
• Telefonica
• Sprint (now part of T-Mobile)
• Vodafone Group
• Orange

Report Scope

In this report, the Global Rich Communication Services Market has been segmented into the following categories, in addition to the industry trends which have also been detailed below:

Global Rich Communication Services Market, by Deployment Models:

• On-premises
• Cloud

Global Rich Communication Services Market, by Enterprise Size:

• Small & Medium Enterprise
• Large Enterprises

Global Rich Communication Services Market, by Application :

• Rich Calls & Messaging
• Content Delivery
• Value Added Services
• Marketing & Advertising Campaign
• Cloud Storage

Global Rich Communication Services Market, by Region:

• North America
• Asia-Pacific
• Europe
• South America
• Middle East & Africa

Competitive Landscape

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the Global Rich Communication Services Market.

Available Customizations

The following customization option is available based on your specific needs: Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five).


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