The rise of cross-platform social messaging apps will increasingly threaten the influence and stickiness of conventional social networks in 2014 and beyond. It is a potentially transformative trend that will see increasing numbers of app developers looking to re-orientate their social integration strategies to facilitate messaging and content sharing with communities outside of Facebook, Twitter and other more established social networks.
"Cross-platform social messaging apps have become hugely popular, particularly among younger demographics, and the leading services have continued to grow their user bases at impressive rates into what are now sizeable communities," said Canalys Senior Analyst Tim Shepherd. "It is important to understand that consumers are not using these services solely as a free-to-send alternative to SMS and MMS. They also are increasingly where users turn for group messaging, and for sharing photos, links and other content, and are the communities where their friends and contacts are most easily and verifiably reachable. While features vary, cross-platform messaging apps are essentially bare-bones social networks in their own right. It is reasonable to assume that as a user's social interaction and engagement with these services grows, it will often leave a correspondingly diminished level of engagement and interest in services such as Facebook. Social networking companies will need to respond to this competition with a renewed focus on the quality of the user experience they offer, and look to add value through feature innovations and enhancements, or else risk user attention being wholly or partially lured away."
No comments:
Post a Comment