Google’s rich communication services messaging (RCS) platform in iPhones will increase the reach for brands to engage with their consumers. It will also enhance the revenues of telecom operators and communication platforms as a service (CPaaS) players such as Route Mobile, Tanla Platforms, Sinch, Gupshup-owned Dotgo, Infobip, among others.
At the recently concluded Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple said that the iOS 18 will support RCS. Once implemented, this will open up scope for brands such as AJio, HDFC Bank, Mamearth, Cars24, JioGames, among many others across different sectors to tap 35 million iPhone devices in the country.
These brands use the services of communication platforms and telcos for sending the messages to consumers, and the development will lead to increase in volumes for RCS and revenue for them as well, industry executives said.
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RCS is a modern version of plain text messages, through which businesses and consumers can send rich media such as images, videos, and even files using the native messaging app in the smartphones.
Till now, Apple was not allowing Google’s messaging platform RCS in its messaging app.
“It’s a very positive move by Apple as India has about 700 million smartphone users in India and Apple has about 5% market share,” said Nitin Singhal, managing director of Sinch India.
“There is a huge growth in RCS enabled message Inbox on Android phones and this is driving the volume of messages…Brands are seeing significantly higher RoI (return on investments) as well as increase in customer experience on the RCS channel,” Singhal added.
According to industry estimates, RCS volume is estimated to be about 1.3 billion messages a month. The same is about 2.2% of the normal SMS messaging volume and 35% of WhatsApp messaging. Currently, about 300 million handsets are RCS enabled, compared to WhatsApp being used by over 600 million users in the country.
The reason why enterprises are adopting RCS is because messages sent over it are 30-40% less expensive than WhatsApp and generate better returns than normal messages.
For businesses, it is more of an interactive engagement with their consumers having a scope for two-way interaction, just like how businesses are using WhatsApp today to drive sales. While RCS is also being used by non-business users, more traction and revenue opportunity will come from enterprises just as it’s WhatsApp business, experts said.
“Enterprises have tried and tested RCS messaging but due to lack of support on iOS devices, they could not scale their channel usage. Now, we can expect fast growth in adoption given that both kinds of devices support RCS,” said Milind Pathak, executive vice president, product & marketing at Route Mobile.
According to Pathak, RCS will bring back the revenue to operators especially when the markets are showing an inclination towards OTT messaging. Lately, telcos such as Bharti Airtel have been flagging concern over shift in SMS volumes to OTT messaging apps, which are unregulated and leading to loss of revenue for them.
Akshaya Moondra, CEO of Vodafone Idea last month said, “Over 50 brands have adopted RBM (rich business messages) as a reliable and preferred marketing channel. RBM enables enterprises to map their customer journeys without investing significant resources in development of apps and maintaining them”.
While Apple’s support for RCS is going to have limited growth in India owing to the size of the market, globally the market is expected to witness a significant uptake in volume.
“iOS currently has a global market share of close to 21%. Considering iOS18 will be applicable for iPhone X and later, we can expect an additional 900 million to 1 billion users getting added in the user base of RCS,” Pathak said.
Inderpal Singh Mumick, CEO of Dotgo said, “With Apple joining the RCS bandwagon, we’re talking about a global user base that will exceed 3 billion in 2025, making RCS the largest rich messaging service globally, surpassing WhatsApp, WeChat, and Telegram”.
Experts said, RCS is emerging as an effective competitor to WhatsApp’s business feature, thus challenging its dominance.
“Within the next 3 years, RCS will be the dominant business messaging platform, surpassing SMS as the primary channel for business communication,” Mumick added.
Shradha Thapa, regional head – OTT India at Infobip said, “In Q1 2024, we recorded 46.93 million interactions on Infobip’s platform, and the increase from last year is 700%. Apple’s adoption of RCS will further add to the number”.
According to Juniper Research, RCS will lead to over $15 billion in additional messaging revenue for operators between 2024-2028, globally.
