WhatsApp to Add Voice in 2014

WhatsApp will add voice calling capability in the second quarter of this year, said Jan Koum, WhatsApp CEO.

That will create a “Skype style” over the app voice and messaging firm with more than 450 million users globally. Most observers would agree WhatsApp is headed for perhaps a billion users over the next several years, as it currently is adding about a million users a day.

Skype, by way of comparison, reports about 280 million active monthly users.

Some, including Tyntec, believe mobile service providers can profit by partnering with such OTT services, in some cases by providing virtual phone numbers that terminate OTT traffic on the mobile network.

Revenues generated by OTT off-net traffic termination are set to increase from $8.1 billion in 2013 to $54.5 billion in 2017, Tyntec argues.

Tyntec, today announced new sponsored research, which was conducted by analyst house mobilesquared. It reveals that the Over The Top (OTT) communications market is set to be worth $53.7 billion and have 2.1 billion smartphone users communicating by OTT services such as WhatsApp, Skype and WeChat by 2017.

Though many would question the figures, Tyntec says Skype is costing the global elecom industry $100 million per day, or $36.5 billion a year, in “lost revenue.”

But that estimate requires valuing all Skype minutes of use as if those minutes would otherwise have been completed on the fixed or mobile voice networks. That likely is only partly true. Much Skype usage is incremental traffic that would not otherwise have been created, if the only option were an international phone call with a high tariff.

Some would say Skype and other OTT services largely are having the effect of capping international calling growth.

Likewise, some argue that OTT messaging cannibalizes carrier text messaging that continues to generate about $120 billion in annual revenues. But that estimate likewise assumes all the new OTT messaging traffic otherwise would have been created using SMS or MMS.

The main point is that WhatsApp, Skype and other OTT services  now will represent a common way millions of people make phone calls and send messages. Whether such services cannibalize carrier voice and messaging (shift usage) or turn voice and text into “no incremental cost” apps, thus destroy the voice and texting market by driving price nearly to zero, is the issue.