INTERVIEW: Synchronoss CEO Glenn Lurie (pictured) urged operators not to surrender the messaging market and commit to reclaiming ground lost to fast-growing over-the-top (OTT) players.

In an interview with Mobile World Live at MWC Shanghai, Lurie said OTT messaging apps like WeChat are “taking over the entire experience”, cutting operators out of revenue and commerce opportunities. But he added carriers have room to fight back and should be looking for opportunities to get back into the messaging business.

Lurie said the situation is similar in the cloud space, noting operators have largely surrendered to Apple and Google but should get in the game to capitalise on opportunities related to 5G:

“I believe that the carriers should be in the cloud business. 5G is coming, latencies are going to be basically real time. The cloud is going to become more and more a part of a smartphone, a car, a smart city, and the reality is the carriers should be playing in the cloud business.”

The CEO also talked about how Synchronoss plans to adapt to meet operators’ changing needs, including hunting for “those right acquisitions that will really improve our overall product sets”.

To watch the full interview, click here.