Text Messaging Catching On in America

Philadelphia -- Once considered a teenage fad, textenables its fans to catch up on the latest news
messaging popularity in the United States is risingand results of their favorite team. There are also
dramatically. Worldwide, according to the Mobilecustom cell phone wallpapers of team logos and
Marketing Association, 350 billion text messagesunique actual game recorded play-by-play
are sent per month. Text messages, also knownringtones in the professional baseball offering. Two
as SMS, are exchanged across the world'syears ago, Live 8, which sponsored the single
networks with 15% of the messages beingbiggest text messaging promotion in history,
classified as commercial marketing messages.garnered 26 million texts supporting increased
In fact, text messaging is entering all aspects ofgovernment aid to poor African countries. The
our society, even relationships. The San Franciscoopportunities for promoters appear to only be
Chronicle reports that nine percent of singles havelimited by one's imagination. In China, cell phone
even admitted to breaking up with their significantadvertising is exploding, but it is slower to catch
others via text message. This includes pop staron in the United States despite the fact that
Britney Spears who is said to have told Kevinmany advertisers who have tried it have
Federline to hit the road via text message. Thirtyreported outstanding results.
percent of text users said that they've continuedOne of the more interesting applications that
an argument by text message; probably part ofwe've seen is one being sold to radio stations by
the same group that ultimately contributed to theChicago-based Spark Network Services. Spark
break ups.offers a suite of text messaging products called
But, text messages aren't just about breaking up,PromoTXTRadio. The text messaging products
they are about hooking up too. Bret Dunlap,allow radio stations to offer votelines,
owner of Advanced Telecom Services, said thatsweepstakes, song dedications, station play lists,
his company has been providing dating services totraffic reports, and breaking news via text
newspapers and radio stations for 15 years.message. It even allows radio stations to offer
Advanced Telecom Services' Matchlink brand hastheir station jingles to be played as cell phone
recently added a text dating service to go withringtones.
its already existing online and telephone voiceStill, Americans have a long way to go to catch
dating services. "It's mostly the 18 to 24 crowdtheir Asian brethren when it comes to the
that uses the mobile text message dating servicegrowing phenomenon of text messaging.
now," said Dunlap.CTIA-The Wireless Association, estimates that
The applications for text messaging promotionsthe average Chinese cell phone user sent 651
are also increasing just as quickly. Major Leaguetext messages last year compared to just 203
Baseball offers a text message service thatfor US wireless users.