Global revenues from over-the-top (OTT) business messaging are expected to surge from $3.6 billion (£2.8 billion) in 2025 to $9.8 billion (£7.7 billion) in 2029, marking a 265% growth rate, according to Juniper Research. This rapid expansion is being driven by WhatsApp’s shift to a per-message pricing model, a move that is expected to accelerate adoption of business messaging.
WhatsApp, with more than 2 billion users worldwide, dominates the OTT business messaging market. Its previous conversational pricing model, which charged businesses for a 24-hour chat window rather than individual messages, was seen as overly complex by enterprises considering WhatsApp as a business channel.
By switching back to a per-message model, WhatsApp is expected to increase its market share, making it easier for businesses to measure their return on investment and integrate WhatsApp more effectively into their customer engagement strategies.
Opportunities for business messaging providers
Juniper Research highlights that for communications platforms to capitalise on this growth, they must focus on management services for key features such as product catalogues and click-to-chat ads. These services will enable businesses to manage their WhatsApp messaging from a single platform, streamlining customer engagement and feature integration.
“To capitalise on this growth, communications platforms must focus on providing management services for key features such as product catalogues and click-to-chat ads,” said Alex Webb, research author at Juniper Research. “These services will ensure that enterprises have a single management platform for all their WhatsApp use cases, simplifying the addition of features such as click-to-chat ads into their messaging strategies.”
With WhatsApp’s pricing changes removing a key adoption barrier, OTT business messaging is set to expand significantly, offering new opportunities for businesses to engage customers more effectively.
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