MessengerPeople Study 2018: 10 million people already communicate with businesses using messenger services

For the first time, the market leader for professional messenger communication offers an inside look into over three years of experience with 1,600+ customers and nine billion data sources.

• WhatsApp: preferred channel for communication between businesses & customers.

• On average, users are subscribed to 1.6 business channels on WhatsApp.

• 62% of all businesses answer customers within 24 hours.

• 44% of all customer inquiries are already being answered by Chatbots.

Munich, December 6, 2018

On the basis of 10 million messenger services users and 18 million daily sent messages, MessengerPeople, the leading software provider for communication over messaging apps, offers insights from the MessengerPeople Study 2018 into the current state of digital communication and the development of messaging apps for businesses.

• In 3 years from 500 messenger services users to over 3 million

„Three years ago we were one of the first providers facilitating WhatsApp customer communication for businesses,“ says Matthias Mehner, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at MessengerPeople. “Since then, we’ve been gaining new users daily and should hit the 50 million milestone in 2020.“

• Most-used channel for messenger communication: WhatsApp

87% of users subscribe to messaging app newsletters on WhatsApp, followed by 7% on Facebook Messenger, 5% on Instagram, and 1% on Telegram.

• On average, users are subscribed to 1,6 newsletters

„We see that users decide which newsletters to subscribe to very deliberately,“ explains Mehner. „They’re choosing quality over quantity.“

• Messenger Services KPIs

An analysis of the billions of messages sent over the MessengerPeople software shows that links sent in the newsletters have an average click through rate of 32%. “Not only the opening rates, but also the click rates are much higher than in e-mail marketing. The unsubscribe rate for messaging app newsletters is 0.1% – much lower than for e-mail newsletter, where you can already be happy with a 0.5% unsubscribe rate,” says Mehner.

• The most successful branches in Messenger Marketing: 1. Media, 2. E-commerce, 3. Banks, B2B-Communication and 5. Sports

Messaging Expert Mehner: “Media companies in particular have started to dramatically improve their reach by using messaging apps. 41 of the top 100 IVW-listed German websites are our customers. E-commerce companies use WhatsApp and Co. to spread their deals. Our customer Mydealz, a leading internet deal platform, has even crashed the Amazon server by sending out an extremely popular deal.“

• The branches with the biggest growth in 2018: 1. Cities and Communities, 2. Transportation and Utilities, 3. Human Resources & Internal Communication, 4. Parties, Politicians & Teams

Live updates about the German national elections were sent over the Washington Post’s specific European politics WhatsApp channel and the coalition decision in the German government this year was also first announced by a German political party over WhatsApp. Messaging apps are also becoming important in political daily life!

For human resources, companies like Manpower and the German Federal Labour Office are also choosing messaging apps for job alerts and career consulting. Mehner: „More and more public transportation services like the Deutsche Bahn are using messaging apps for an innovative, fast, and secure way to distribute information to riders. Their customer service is constantly being expanded further.”

• Companies received over 117 million inquiries from users over messaging apps – primarily (98%) over WhatsApp

„117 million inquiries per year is just the beginning,“ says Mehner. „The demand for customer service via messaging apps is there. WhatsApp and Co. already far overshadows social media in terms of customer dialogue. The customer is ready – what’s missing are companies that are willing to use this opportunity.“

• 62% of all companies answer customer inquiries within 24 hours

„We all know that speed is the most important thing in customer service“ says Mehner. „Messaging apps as a medium have a huge advantage in this regard, because people are used to quick responses. We see that the majority of businesses have understood this point and can successfully implement it.”

• 44% of all customer inquiries are answered by Chatbots

Our customers were able to have 50 million customer inquiries in the last year answered by Chatbots. „Chatbots have huge potential for customer service: almost 80 percent of inquiries are repeated”, reports Mehner. „Chatbots can be put to excellent use raising the efficiency and quality of customer service.“

• Customer service Chatbots say „Thank you” 636 times daily, on average

„A Chatbot should have a personality: ideally he is patient, polite – but also funny!“, says Mehner. „Our Chatbots have mastered this tone, and are always polite.“

The complete study can be downloaded for free: MessengerPeople.com/messengerpeople-study-2018/

Study Information:

The numbers and facts from „Inside MessengerPeople“ are based on the experience that MessengerPeople has gathered with over 10 million messenger services users, over 772 active Chatbots, over 50 million Chatbot answers, and an average of 18 million messages sent daily. (Data as of October 2018.)

Note about the Graphics: Please include our trademark when using: © MessengerPeople 2018 – Download here .

For questions or inquiries:

Katharina Kremming
PR & Media Marketing Manager
+49 (0) 89 / 416 173 195
[email protected]

Patrick Kuegle
PR & Media Relations
+49 (0) 177 56 46 017
[email protected]

Find out more and get the latest information on our news channel: