According to the National Commission of the Competition Market (CNMC), the number of SMS sent between individuals in Spain continues to fall and in 2020 they barely exceeded 700 million. Far from the more than 10,000 million reached by the service in 2006. However, since 2016, the CNMC has been accounting for professional SMS service traffic (A2P), where an inverse curve is reflected. In 2020, this type of text message reached records in our country of more than 4,300 million messages, which represents 85% of the SMS that we Spaniards receive.
since it was sent the first SMS 30 years ago, in December 1992, this channel is still in force, but its use has changed radically. According to a study by the Spanish platform for sending professional SMS SMSpubli, of all the messages for professional use that we Spaniards receive, 38% are to send us notifications, warnings or reminders. “Companies have a lot at stake if a client doesn’t show up for an appointment. In businesses such as hospitality, consultancy or beauty, it involves significant losses in effectiveness, so it is normal that this is one of the most common uses of SMS in Spain”explains Ignacio Espada, SMSpubli sales manager.
The second most common category of messages in our text boxes are campaigns, both informative and commercial, that companies carry out to impact their databases or by renting third-party databases. 35 out of every 100 shipments correspond to this type of message.
“SMS lives a new life. It has gone from being an interpersonal communication channel, to being a connector between companies and users for quick, brief, important notices that we want to reach and be read. Our companies increasingly turn to this less saturated channel to make relevant notifications or carry out campaigns of interest to their customers”, Sword reports.
Although far from the two main uses, it is worth noting the presence of messages for identity verification, such as 2FA codes or security processes that are increasingly widespread when it comes to doing transactionsregister as a user or access through passwords and personal data.
Special offers and appointment reminders, the most common specific uses
Beyond the grouped categories, a more detailed analysis of specific cases reveals the presence of promotions temporary specials or flash offers, which account for 18% of the SMS that reach us on the mobile. We also find appointment reminders, which account for 12%.
A striking fact is that if we group together the specific uses derived from our online shopping habits (order confirmations, click&collect services, home delivery notices…), the sum of this type of notifications associated with our ecommerce purchases represents 15 % of total SMS sent in Spain.
The use of SMS in the field of cybersecurity is also striking. Uses such as order and payment confirmation, account recovery, 2FA security codes, password reminders or digital signatures add up to 11% of SMS uses.
SMS map in Spain
The Community of Madrid is the region from which more professional SMS are sent in Spain, with more than 28% of the messages circulating in our country. It is followed by Catalonia with more than 27% and the Canary Islands with more than 19%. These data are based on the location of the headquarters of the companies that activate the platform for sending professional SMS to carry out
communications.
Retail companies are the most accustomed to resorting to SMS campaigns in our country, and account for 16% of shipments. The weight of the health sector is notable, with 10% and education with 6%.
“Medical consultations confirmed by SMS have become very widespread in recent years, as a way of providing service to the patient and reducing as much as possible the absences that generate inefficiencies in the system. The online or telematics training sector, which also grew a lot in the pandemic, has also found in SMS a way to contact users to send them brief information, such as reminders, passwords, content updates in a learning portal, etc. etc.”explains Ignacio Espada.
surprising that the banking is not among the top 10 and accounts for 2.45% of SMS campaigns. Other minority sectors with great development potential are the transportation, with 1.39% or the insurance, with 1.15%.
