History & Facts About SMS

Origins of SMS

SMS made its appearance in 1985, beginning as a German/French team including Bernard Ghillebaert, Friedhelm Hillebrand, and Oculy Silaban. Originally, the SMS service was defined in the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standards. The intent was to provide a means for transfer of brief, one-way information, like the news flashes one sees on the bottom of a TV screen. Candidates for inclusion were stock market quotes, sports score updates, weather reports, and up-to-the-minute traffic information. Short messages sent from providers’ websites were also planned. It was aimed at business people. The first SMS message actually sent, and beginning the history of short message service (SMS), was a Christmas greeting on December 3, 1992, traveling on Vodafone’s GSM network in the UK.

SMS was not expected to be the success it turned out to be, and that’s one reason why it was originally free. Its popularity and its youthful audience surprised service providers, who did not mount an extensive advertising campaign and didn’t, in fact, spread the word much at all until after it began to make waves. This was partly because it had a steep learning curve. The industry didn’t anticipate that people would be up to the challenge. But young people not only were up to the challenge; they actually found the challenge of the complexity worked to their advantage in that the medium could be used free from parental oversight and intrusion because adults were finding the medium too challenging to take it on. That there was initially no cost was an added bonus.

SMS Developments

The limitation to messages of 160 characters in English (fewer in alphabets that have characters that use up more memory. As people worked to communicate as fully as possible in this limited medium, new abbreviations and types of abbreviations arose. Because these spellings were new inventions, they spread slowly among users and added to the protection people felt using the medium: outsiders, which included anyone who wasn’t using the medium, now were challenged both by the complexity of the technology and the opacity of the language that was used.

In early SMS history, when the first prepaid airtime became available, SMS charges didn’t exist, and people could avoid be shocked by their usage costs if they texted instead of making expensive voice calls, SMS text message marketing popularity increased markedly. By 2000, monthly texts per user averaged 35. By 2010, the monthly average was 357. But as SMS usage took off, services realized that they should be charging for SMS. Nevertheless, the impetus was there, and the popularity of SMS, instead of being curtailed by the new charges, continued to grow apace.

Short message service history developed quickly with the use of short codes, another SMS innovation appeared in the United States in 2003. These 5-6 digit codes (short codes) are not only easier to remember than regular telephone numbers, but they made an ideal fit with value-added services, including subscribing to SMS campaigns from the customer’s favorite vendors, voting on television shows, accessing premium mobile services, and ordering ringtones, the latter two being the next development that emerged in the wake of the enormous popularity of SMS text messaging. However, by 2009, premium services were in less demand, and standard services were in greater demand. Nevertheless, the use of the SMS service is expected to continue to grow and generate $233 billion in income in calendar year 2014.

Recent SMS history developments include businesses learning to use SMS text messaging for SMS niche marketing and contact with select audiences. There are SMS alert systems for educational institutions, virtual concierge services for travelers, parent-contact programs for K-12 schools, patient contact programs for healthcare providers, community contact programs for churches, and advertising programs for restaurants, hotels, and more.

SMS FACTS

• The first text message was sent in 1992
• Over 70% of mobile phone users send text messages
• Text messages contribute to 20% of operator revenues
• 94% of 18-24 year olds send personal texts (MDA Professional text messaging report 2003)
• 34% of those aged between 18-24 send 36 or more messages a week (MDA Professional text messaging report 2003)
• 14% of people send business text messages on their mobile phone (MDA Professional text messaging report 2003)
• On New Year’s Day 2003, the number of text messages sent in one day topped one hundred million for the first time, and on New Year ’s Day 2004, the daily total reached 111 million messages

• On New Year’s Day 2005, the highest daily total ever recorded by the Mobile Data Association was reached, when 133 million messages were sent
• The Mobile Data Association predicts that 30 billion text messages will be sent during 2005
• 78 million text messages were sent by Britons on Valentine’s Day 2003, 6 times more than traditional cards and a 37% increase on text figures for 2002.
• 65 million text messages were sent throughout the UK on the last day of the 2002/3 Premiership (11th May 2003)

• In December 2004, 2.4 billion text messages were sent in Britain as the traditional Christmas card was dumped in favour of a seasonal text message.
• UK mobile phone owners now send 72 million text messages on a typical day across the four UK GSM network operators
• On average, 3 million messages are sent every hour in Britain.
• UK text message figures for December 2004 topped 2.4 billion, 2.2 billion for November 2004 ,  and over 2.3 billion for October
• GCSE results - 79 million text messages were sent throughout the UK on 26th August 2004
• A-Level results - 67 million text messages were sent throughout the UK on 14th August 2003. On August 19th 2004, the day last year’s A-level results were announced, 81 million messages were sent.
• The first local and mayoral electoral vote in the UK by text message took place on 23rd May 2002
• 95% of all text messages are delivered within 10 seconds
• 23% of world-wide mobile users use SMS more than once a day
• 55% of world-wide mobile users who SMS more then once a day are 18 years old or younger
• 53% of Northeners use their mobile phone for sending/receiving personal text messages
• 67% of women in the UK classify themselves at ‘text competent’ - MDA Mother’s Day survey
• 51% of women would rather receive a text message than a card on special occasions - MDA Mother’s Day survey
• Who sends you personal texts? - 80% said friends/ 61% partner/ 39% parents/ 22% children -MDA Professional text messaging report 2002
• 50% of women use text messaging as a way of keeping in contact with friends and family - MDA Mother’s Day survey
• 42% of women recognise text as a way of sharing a popular interest with their children -MDA Mother’s day survey
• A text message is the best way to show you care, according to 47% of women - MDA Mother’s day survey
• The peak hours for texting are between 10.30pm and 11.00pm
• You can send the same text to up to 50 people with group texting
• There are a huge range of services that can send you text updates e.g Movie reviews, bank balances, sports, weather.
• The Rt. Hon Tony Blair MP became the first UK Prime Minister to use text message technology to talk directly to the people on 25^th November 2004, answering questions submitted in advance by text message from members of the public as well as in real-time in a mobile phone chat-room, transmitted live from No. 10 Downing Street

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