The global SMS market stands at US$97.94Bn in 2025 and consists of 200 individual countries or markets each market is a different size depending on population, teledensity, the number of Mobiles and adopted SMS usage. In total around 8 Trillion SMS were sent Globally in 2025.
Teledensity by Country (number of phones per 100 people) https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/YkuwA/3/
SMS Sent P.A. by Country https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/F7v98/1/
Population by Country https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/N0d7r/5/
Mobiles by Country https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Atdwe/1/
SMS Market Size P.A. by Country https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/QVTUI/4/
Whilst SMS is the main international messaging service the Over the Top (OTT) operators continue to offer complimentary chat services. Peer to Peer chat continues to rise but SMS is firmly entrenched for transactional and promotional messages owing to regulation and global coverage and use by Smartphones and uniquely Feature Phones too.
SMS Usage by Country https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/lUiGG/4/
WhatsApp Usage by Country https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/eEOP9/2/
SnapChat Usage by Country https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/1phAb/1/
Slack Usage by Country https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/FRQFc/10/
WeChat Usage by Country https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/dCQIB/1/
Telegram Usage by Country https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/c6BM2/1/
Viber Usage by Country https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/eFcMS/1/
Signal Usage by Country https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/gGaYL/1/
There are 8 Billion Mobiles in the world in 2025 but as many as 2 Billion are Feature Phones (GSM based 'dumb' phones that can not use OTT APPs)
Feature Phones https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/yBAwF/1/
iOS and Android https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/d6A8z/1/