Disco Is Dead! Long Live SMS! SMS Is Not Dead!

.... yet!

So Slide, the social apps company that Google acquired for around $200 million just over a year ago is being shut down. A couple of stories about this here and here.

Disco, Google's (nae Slide's) attempt at group messaging is one of the apps that will go the way of the Dodo, which as we all know from the Goodies, went belly up as a species due to their exquisite taste. It doesn't surprise me to be honest, but I sort of figured that it would disappear as part of Google+ branding exercise. I guess that this still might be the case with it integrated as part of this product? Similar to the Beluga/Facebook Messenger integration

I would not be surprised at all if we see this a few more times, as group messaging is now such a crowded market place! Crowded, yet in the overall scheme of things, still without adequate reach. All of these group messaging apps still all suffer from the fact that to join in the fun you all have to use the same app. I.e. If you don't have a 'smartphone'* with the same app as all of your friends then you are stuffed! That is of course unless the app defaults back to SMS as the lowest common denominator as a transport mechanism. A thing GroupMe does, who were acquired by Skype early this week for a cool $85 million give or take the odd $10 million. Not too shabby for 16 odd months work.

It's interesting, KPN (a mobile network in the Netherlands as an example) sees the rise of Group Messaging as such a threat to their SMS revenue. the uptake of the WhatsApp Group Messaging app grew from 0% of Hi's (KPN's youth brand) Android phone base in August of 2010 to 85% in April 2011. They suggested changing the charging model of traffic used by the app as opposed to simply shutting down access to it. Very generous.

Surely the rise of Group messaging should be seen as an opportunity, as opposed to a threat. Unless of course the group messaging app is being used to organise riots in London. Mobile networks still own the distribution network that can reach almost any mobile globally. I would have thought a Twilio style opening up of the network would see people flocking to some carrier based alternatives, should the alternatives be priced appropriately for developers to use and Customers to engage.

Who knows. More customers paying less might lead to opportunities elsewhere for revenue streams to compensate for the losses elsewhere. I.e losses due to a competitive pricing market for SMS.

Just a thought.

Cheers

M

*honestly I hate the term 'smartphone'. A phone is only as smart as the user who uses it. Just because my phone doesn't hook up to a data network doesn't mean it looks bad.