Facebook’s Revenue Dreams For WhatsApp Are Under Threat — From Old-Fashioned SMS

For much of the past decade telecommunications giants like ATT, Verizon or Vodafone were on the back foot. Social media companies like Facebook and Twitter freely ran their services for billions of people on their infrastructure, making fat margins on advertising and siphoning away a controversial but important source of revenue: SMS fees. 

Telcos may finally be getting their revenge. Their revenues from hosting business messages through SMS are getting larger.

Around two thirds of businesses in Europe are looking at using SMS for the first time to communicate with customers, according to a survey that questioned 686 businesses in the region earlier this year and was conducted by Commify, a messaging service for businesses that focuses on SMS. 

These are messages that come from businesses instead of friends and family, such as a salon inviting you back for 10%-off hair

Article source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2018/11/21/facebooks-revenue-dreams-for-whatsapp-are-under-threatfrom-old-fashioned-sms/