2020 : A Year to Remember

There is no doubt 2020 will go down as one of the toughest years in recent history for many people and we have all had to adapt due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Our people and their families have been affected, so too have so many of our business partners and our daily routine has been changed perhaps forever. With a workforce distributed all over the world, we were in some ways prepared for what was to come. Internal all hands calls and updates, functional reviews and of course client calls and meetings have long been a familiar way of working for our company. However, we’ve really missed the opportunities we used to take for granted to work and socialize face to face with each other and likewise with our partners wherever they may be in the world.

Despite all this, SMS Highway has continued to grow – our revenues grew by just over 30%...the fifth year in succession we have grown by at least 25%. COVID impact was difficult to measure – after an initial period of growth due to the increased reliance on remote communications, we saw a mixed bag of consequences and it is clear that some business sectors face further tough times as a consequence of the COVID pandemic in the coming months or even years.

Regardless, we remain highly optimistic about the future of A2P messaging - our growth highlights the continued development of the marketplace and our role within it. Whilst certain regions are seeing growth rates slow down a little as the market matures, others continue to develop at a rate of knots.

Our business in Africa has grown significantly in 2020 as mobile culture develops, adoption rates increase and MNOs develop their A2P strategies. With people in Kenya and South Africa, we are well positioned to support the speedy growth of the African digital economy in 2021.

2020 saw us open our first office in Latin America, in Quito, and soon after that we delivered our first exclusive A2P revenue assurance agreement with CNT Ecuador, ensuring that we help them to develop their A2P business and investing in the quality and security of A2P messages their subscribers receive. There is much more work for us to do in this space as MNOs try to strike the right balance between investing in monetizing A2P SMS, fighting fraud and continuing to grow their A2P revenues.

On the subject of fighting fraud, it is painfully clear that in times of fear and uncertainty, fraudulent actors continue to focus their efforts on mobile communications. We have invested significant additional resources as we have grown our team dedicated to working with MNOs on compliance and anti-fraud, and in many cases we’ve been supporting them using our experiences elsewhere, promoting best practice wherever possible. It is imperative that our industry works together, shares ideas and develops strategies in partnership to fight the ongoing threat fraudulent actors pose. As a member of the MEF and the Future of Messaging programme, we’ve seen some excellent progress made on this front in 2020.

The world continues to change at a rapid pace – there will no doubt be much more talk of COVID impact both within our own industry and beyond, and adapting to change remains vital. We sent our first RCS messages in 2020 and will continue to develop our products and services by working with our MNO partners and supporting them to ensure together we deliver the right services for our clients in 2021.