Sybase reports surge in SMS nationwide during election

By Dan Butcher

November 10, 2008

Obama and McCain went head-to-head

Sybase 365 reported an unprecedented surge in SMS traffic during the 10 minutes immediately following the official announcement that Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States.

On Tuesday, Nov. 4 between 11:00 p.m. and 11:10 p.m. EST, the volume of messages surged over three times the "normal" volume for that time of day. The volume between 11:00 p.m. and midnight EST was 9 percent greater than the same hour on the previous day.

"Marketers should look at the Obama campaign's usage of SMS as a way to reach subscribers for pushing time-sensitive information," said Bill Dudley, senior director of product management for Sybase 365, Dublin, CA.

"The mobile Web is also growing rapidly with the proliferation of handsets with advanced Web browsing capabilities -- Windows Mobile handsets, Apple iPhone, Google Android handsets and many, many others," he said.

"People are now able to browse and access the Web anywhere. I suspect that in the next few years, mobile Web usage, at least for some sites, will rival that of PC usage.

FIS, Fiserv and Sybase are tops in mobile banking according to ABI

"Combining mobile Web capabilities with SMS as a vehicle for information delivery -- as well as interactivity -- with people, should be a winning combination."

As polling stations closed across the country and specifically between 7:00 p.m. and midnight EST, Sybase 365 estimates that more than 1.2 billion SMS messages were sent nationwide.

Throughout Tuesday, the total number of text messages sent was 10 percent higher than the previous day.

Sybase 365, a subsidiary of mobile messaging services provider Sybase Inc., specializes in mobile messaging interoperability, the delivery and settlement of SMS and MMS content, mobile commerce and enterprise-class messaging services.

Processing more than 200 billion messages per year, Sybase 365 reaches more than 700 mobile operators and 3 billion subscribers around the world.

"SMS usage in the United States is very strong and continuing to grow," Mr. Dudley said. "Today, more than 50 percent of the subscribers send at least one message per month or more.

"In fact, in terms of volume, the U.S.A. is probably second now, only next to China in terms of monthly SMS -- and MMS -- volumes," he said.

"Both P2P and A2P capabilities are quite ubiquitous and now completely mainstream."

However, he said that there is room for SMS usage in the U.S. to grow even further.

"With SMS usage at just over 50 percent, there is considerable upside," Mr. Dudley said. "I believe the U.S. will start to level off in the mid-70-percent range to even 80-percent range over the next few years, but until then, the growth will continue."

Messaging surges can happen at any time, he said.

"We typically see SMS surges around Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day and any other time there are significant events," Mr. Dudley said.

"Historically, the entire autumn is a growth time, as school starts and young people resume communications with friends, although I will say, in the last year or two, any seasonal downturn has only been very slight, due to the overriding organic growth in traffic," he said.

In addition, MMS in the U.S. is healthy and also growing at a rapid clip.

"Like the SMS market, this is one of the best MMS markets in the world, in terms of traffic," Mr. Dudley said. "It is almost 100 percent interoperable among carriers in the U.S., and soon, it will be expanding internationally."

Today, MMS usage represents well over 25 percent of U.S. subscribers, with many carriers and age groups in the 30 percent to 40 percent range and growing, according to Sybase.

"With more and more handsets -- now well over 50 percent and probably closer to 60 percent -- supporting MMS, we see no reason why this service should not continue to thrive," Mr. Dudley said.

"In fact, now we are seeing more usage of MMS in an A2P setting for services such as interacting with social networks, pushing rich media feeds to subscribers for news, sports, as well as a medium for delivering content to the handsets," he said.