Juniper Research predicted a growing danger of OTT business messaging cannibalising operator SMS and RCS revenue as the number of messages sent on the third-party services soars.

The research company forecast the number of messages sent would grow from 93 billion this year to 254 billion by 2027, fuelled by increased availability of open OTT messaging APIs and competitive pricing models when compared to operators’ messaging platforms.

Juniper Research highlighted growth in use of third-party OTT business communications including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber and WeChat over the past five years.

In a whitepaper, Juniper Research highlighted a lack of, or lower, costs when using an OTT platform compared with operators’ messaging services.

“The volatility in wholesale SMS business messaging pricing provides an opportunity for OTT messaging platforms to grow their revenue, by offering stability for CPaaS platforms when negotiating traffic subscriptions with enterprises,” Juniper Research principal analyst Elisha Sudlow-Poole stated.

Juniper Research predicted enterprises will be attracted to the advanced security and rich media properties of OTT business messaging, along with the ability to support security features including brand authentication to boost user activity.

It noted the increased processing and strict channel verification systems in OTT messaging applications will be key to ensuring communications aren’t susceptible to the same fraudulent activity found on channels such as SMS.