Comparative analysis conducted by the chief executive officer of Fam, Giuseppe Stuto, has revealed that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iMessage is the most popular messaging platform among teenagers in the United States. According to Stuto an average of 25 iMessages are sent by youths aged between 10 and 19 in the United States per day.
The number of messages sent by the same demographic per day via Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Messenger is 14 while on Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) it is 8. In Stuto’s opinion Apple could be the best platform for developers and brands aiming to reach consumers in the United States since it is heavily used.
Strategic move
Apple launched iMessage as a way of preventing third-party chat applications from taking away the time and activity of iPhone owners. Chat applications have emerged as tools that are associated with high user engagement. Consequently the more time that is spent on these chat applications the less time can be spent elsewhere. This could potentially reduce the amount of revenue Apple is able to make from selling apps on the App Store.
The development of iMessage is not complete and Apple intends to turn the chat application into one that is multipurpose and highly functional through which consumers will be able to carry out various activities. iMessage apps was for instance introduced last year in September and was intended to assist developers in getting their apps out there.
P2P payments
Other ways in which Apple has made iMessage more functional includes allowing payments to be made via the chat app using Apple Pay. Thus users of the app can send money to other users and this will assist Apple compete against Facebook Messenger, Venmo as well as other apps which make use of the peer-to-peer functionality.
In the future Apple is also planning to introduce a business chat feature on iMessage which will let business organizations connect with their customers from within the chat app. Additionally Apple will also make it possible to access iMessage from all Apple devices including the Mac desktop.
On Tuesday shares of Apple Inc rose by 1.63% to close the day at $159.78.
