Pew Internet published a report yesterday about SMS usage by adults in the US. Over the next few posts we’re going to be digging into the stats to see what they mean for businesses that use text messaging to communicate with their customers.
It’s worth bearing in mind that this is useful information even if you’re not based in the States. Historically, SMS take-up in the US has been behind take-up in Europe, thought the the gap has closed in recent years. As such, you can probably treat some of these US stats as conservative approximations to equivalents for adults in Europe and (maybe) East Asia.
Let’s take a look at some headline information from the report:
During May 2010, 72% of American adults sent at least one text message, up from 65% in September 2009. That’s growth in usage of nearly 11% in a just nine months. That stat alone suggests we’re on a sharp climb towards almost total saturation of SMS usage in key adult markets.
Adults who use SMS send and receive a median of 10 texts a day. This is still a fifth of the median figure for teens in the 12-17 range, but it represents a huge increase – and a huge opportunity for businesses – compared to the situation just a couple of years ago.
90% of American adults with children living at home have a cellphone, compared with 78% of those who either don’t have kids or whose kids have moved out.
65% sleep with their phones next to them – so a text message sent during the night is among the very first things they see in the morning.
57% claim they have received messages they would define as “spam” – a reminder of the importance of using SMS marketing with permission-based lists of subscribers.
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