The Global Market for RCS Services is Projected to Reach US$4.9 Billion by 2020

Rising Demand for MVAS & Competition from OTT Services Drive the Rich Communications Suite Services Market, According to a New Report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

GIA announces the release of a comprehensive global report on Rich Communications Suite (RCS) Services. The global market for RCS Services is projected to reach US$4.9 billion by 2020, driven by rising mobile subscriptions, growing demand for mobile value-added services (MVAS), and the need to combat intensifying competition from Over-the-Top (OTT) services.

Given the widespread penetration of smartphones and the convergence of IP and mobile based messaging, mobile users are increasingly seeking advanced messaging options. While Over-the-Top services delivered by third parties are gaining huge popularity, they are however posing a threat to conventional messaging revenues. In a bid to stay relevant in this highly competitive environment, operators are upgrading their messaging services to be on par with that offered by OTT providers. Rich Communication Suite (RCS) is emerging as a solution to offer advanced messaging and multimedia services to mobile users.

RCS Services, an initiative of GSM Association, is an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)-based platform that enables mobile operators to offer enhanced communication services, such as chat, instant messaging, multiple chat sessions, content sharing, IP video call, VoIP, file transfer, document exchange, social network status, and others, to users across any network on any device. The RCS program is gaining traction for its ability to deliver a standard global interoperable system. Launch of RCS enabled mobile phones, and the continuous new addition of contributing members to the RCS consortium, including handset manufacturers, network operators, and application providers, bode well for the market. RCS-e, which is an abridged version of release 2, is viewed as a potential solution to the migration of traffic to OTT, with a growing number of operators expressing interest in rolling-out LTE or IMS in order to offer these services. However, barriers such as, bottlenecks in technology deployment, cost issues, and lack of go-to-market plans, are impeding smooth implementation. RCS services have high penetration in South Korea and Spain. Other countries that have introduced these services include Germany, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, France, Brazil, Eucador, Albania, Romania, Slovakia and Germany.

As stated by the new market research report on Rich Communications Suite (RCS) Services, Asia-Pacific represents the largest market worldwide, followed by Europe. Features, such as integration of social network or web-services, are expected to be incorporated in the upcoming RCS service releases. Identification, authentication, privacy, and security are the other features expected to characterize future RCS.

Major players covered in the report include Alcatel-Lucent, Comverse, China Mobile Limited, Ericsson, Genband, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Interop Technologies, Mavenir Systems, Nokia Networks, Orange S.A., SAP AG, SK Telecom, Telefonica, Movistar, Vodafone Group Plc., among others.

The research report titled “Rich Communications Suite (RCS) Services: A Global Strategic Business Report” announced by Global Industry Analysts Inc., provides a comprehensive review of market trends, issues, drivers, mergers, acquisitions and other strategic industry activities of global companies.  The report provides market estimates and projections in US$ Million for all major geographic markets, such as the US, Europe, Asia-Pacific (South Korea and Rest of Asia-Pacific), and Rest of World.