South Africa's mobile voice market is shrinking as individuals and businesses increasingly rely on platforms like WhatsApp and Microsoft Teams for communication. UC&C platforms offer enhanced functionality at a lower cost, driving this shift. BMIT predicts the market will continue to evolve with cloud adoption and integration remaining key drivers.
South Africa's mobile voice market is experiencing a continuous decline as platforms like WhatsApp and Microsoft Teams gain traction as preferred communication methods for both individuals and businesses. This trend is highlighted in BMIT 's latest Voice Services and Unified Communication and Collaboration ( UC&C ) research, which indicates a rapid shift from traditional voice services towards popular UC&C tools, omnichannel contact centers, and collaborative platforms.
Chris Geerdts, managing director of BMIT, emphasizes that UC&C platforms offer enhanced functionality at a significantly lower cost compared to traditional voice services. BMIT's analysis reveals that the mobile voice business, the dominant contributor to this market, is projected to decrease to R22.5 billion by 2028, less than half its value in 2020, although a period of growth was observed until 2021. The fixed voice market is anticipated to decline even more rapidly, plummeting by 64% to R3.1 billion over the same period.However, Geerdts notes that this decline in traditional voice services would have been more substantial had it not been for the government sector. While the government sector is embracing platforms like Microsoft Teams, it has also transitioned slower away from traditional voice usage and continues to allocate substantial budgets for metered voice minutes. Meanwhile, BMIT projects the UC&C market to nearly triple in size over the next four years. This market, which grew at a 20% CAGR from R1.5 billion in 2020 to R2.6 billion in 2023, is expected to continue its growth trajectory, reaching R4.3 billion by 2028 at an 11% CAGR. Geerdts attributes this growth to the popularity of WhatsApp, which has solidified its position as the most widely used application for daily communication among individuals and smaller businesses. Its free calling and messaging features, coupled with useful group communication functionality, have made it a compelling choice. Due to its high consumer penetration, businesses are increasingly engaging with customers through WhatsApp business accounts.Geerdts explains that smaller companies may utilize WhatsApp for one-on-one interactions, while larger companies are adopting an omnichannel approach, seamlessly integrating these channels into their traditional contact centers and other business operations. He points out that while global giants dominate the market, local service providers have also developed impressive converged business-to-business communication platforms and omnichannel customer interaction platforms, aiming to deliver enhanced customer experiences and significant efficiency improvements.BMIT observes an overall trend towards cloud-based private branch exchanges (PBXs), although a considerable number of companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMMEs), continue to favor on-site PBX systems. The firm argues that cloud adoption is a logical progression, considering the popularity of other UC&C platforms like Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, and Zoom. Teams has emerged as the most popular platform in South Africa, with BMIT projecting 2.2 million paid activations by 2028. Geerdts acknowledges that the growth of UC&C services partially mitigates the decline in tariffed voice revenue. BMIT's UC&C revenue calculations include hosted PBX and contact center services, as well as UC&C-centric services such as Microsoft Teams. He highlights several opportunities outlined in the report, with one key driver being cloud migration, fueled by the increasing integration of traditional voice services, collaboration platforms, and business systems. While many companies recognize the need to integrate their systems for competitiveness, concerns about integration complexity, security, and data privacy remain. BMIT anticipates that cloud-based call control (combining hosted PBX and UC&C platforms with breakout) will reach 1.2 million users by 2028. This represents only a quarter of the potential user base, indicating a substantial growth opportunity in the market
MOBILE VOICE UC&C Whastapp Microsoft Teams CLOUD COMPUTING SOUTH AFRICA MARKET TRENDS BMIT
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