the expansion of mobile messaging usage in africa and middle east

Deploy a mobile ready messaging strategy across your organization

eMarketer projects that 1.82 billion people across the globe will use apps like Facebook Messenger and WeChat in 2017, an increase of 15.5% year over year.

The company that creates most comprehensive source of information on how to do business in a digital world says that despite the global adoption of mobile messaging, Middle East and Africa is the only region where mobile messaging users are in the minority. Just 22.7% of mobile phone internet users in this region are expected to use chat apps in 2017, which is up considerably from 16.3% in 2014, but still far below the other regions—and the worldwide average of 66.5%.

Over 243 million mobile phone users worldwide will start using mobile messaging apps this year, according to eMarketer’s updated forecast. Through at least 2020, this growth will be widespread, occurring in each of the 22 countries included in the estimates.

“A mobile messaging app provides private one-to-one or one-to-many communication between registered users, via a mobile phone number or user ID. Its messages and calls—voice or video—are then transmitted via data connections and the mobile web,” said Cathy Boyle, eMarketer principal analyst and author of our latest report, “Messaging App Usage Worldwide: eMarketer’s Updated Forecast, Leaderboard and Behavioral Analysis.”

According to the report, majority of 2017’s new users (63%) will come from five countries—China, India, the US, Indonesia and Brazil. Additionally, these five countries will be home to the largest number of mobile messaging app users in total, which is unsurprising considering that they also have the five largest populations in the world.

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