Rich communication services (RCS) is an advanced messaging protocol developed by the telecommunications industry to enhance traditional SMS and MMS services. It enables feature-rich, IP-based messaging over mobile data or Wi-Fi, supporting capabilities such as high-resolution media sharing, read receipts, typing indicators, group chats, location sharing, and interactive business messaging. The primary purpose of RCS is to provide a more engaging, interactive, and app-like messaging experience directly within the native messaging application.
The rich communication services market consists of sales of rich communication services by entities (organizations, sole traders and partnerships) that are used across industries for both personal and enterprise communication, allowing businesses to interact with customers through branded, secure, and feature-rich messaging channels. RCS is used on smartphones with compatible messaging clients, often integrated into default messaging applications, and operates over mobile data or Wi-Fi networks.
The global rich communication services market was valued at $4,013.1 million in 2020 which grew till 2025 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 14.00%.
Growing Enterprise Adoption For Customer Communication
During the historic period, growing enterprise adoption for customer communication was significantly driven by the RCS market, as businesses increasingly sought advanced messaging channels that went beyond traditional SMS for engaging customers with rich media content, transactional notifications, and automated support. RCS, which supports features such as branded messaging, interactive buttons, and high resolution media, enables enterprises to deliver improved customer experiences directly within native messaging apps, driving higher engagement and operational efficiency. For instance, in June 2024, according to the European Commission, a Europe-based government agency, in 2023, 60.9% of EU enterprises used social media to engage with customers, with adoption highest among large enterprises (86%) versus small ones (58%), and most businesses using one or two types of social media platforms, while 8.1% used all three. Therefore, the RCS market was significantly driven by the growing enterprise adoption for customer communication during the historic period.
Next-Generation Messaging Tools Streamline Customer Journeys
Major companies in the rich communication services market are increasingly integrating AI-powered messaging, interactive communication tools, and secure two-way messaging to enhance customer engagement, combat fraud, and drive business outcomes. These solutions leverage rich media, action buttons, carousels, read receipts, and predictive AI to deliver personalized experiences, streamline customer journeys, and increase conversion rates. For instance, in October 2025, Airship, a US-based mobile-first customer experience company, launched RCS support on its platform. The solution enables brands to create verified, interactive conversations across iOS and Android, supports high-resolution images and carousels, offers actionable elements like "Buy Now" or "Add to Calendar" buttons, and provides engagement analytics including read receipts and user actions. By embedding RCS natively, Airship allows marketers to use existing SMS workflows while ensuring fallback to SMS/MMS when devices do not support RCS, delivering secure, scalable, and immersive messaging experiences that accelerate conversions, build customer trust, and optimize campaign performance.
The global rich communication services market is fairly concentrated, with large players operating in the market. The top 10 competitors in the market made up 34.4% of the total market in 2024.
Rich Communication Services Global Market Opportunities And Strategies To 2035 from The Business Research Company provides the strategists; marketers and senior management with the critical information they need to assess the global rich communication services market as it emerges from the COVID-19 shut down.
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Where is the largest and fastest-growing market for rich communication services? How does the market relate to the overall economy; demography and other similar markets? What forces will shape the market going forward? The rich communication services market global report from The Business Research Company answers all these questions and many more.
The report covers market characteristics; size and growth; segmentation; regional and country breakdowns; competitive landscape; market shares; trends and strategies for this market. It traces the market's history and forecasts market growth by geography. It places the market within the context of the wider rich communication services; and compares it with other markets.
The report covers the following chapters
- Introduction and Market Characteristics- Brief introduction to the segmentations covered in the market, definitions and explanations about the segments, key products, supply chain and market attractiveness scoring and analysis.
- Key Trends- Highlights the major trends shaping the global market. This section also highlights likely future technologies and developments in the market.
- Growth Analysis And Strategic Analysis Framework Analysis on PESTEL, end use industries, market growth rate, global historic (2020-2025) and forecast (2025-2030, 2035F) market values and drivers and restraints that support and control the growth of the market in the historic and forecast periods, forecast growth contributors and total addressable market (TAM).
- Regional And Country Analysis- Historic (2020-2025) and forecast (2025-2030, 2035F) market values and growth and market share comparison by region and country.
- Market Segmentation- Contains the market values (2020-2025) (2025-2030, 2035F) and analysis for each segment by type, by deployment model, by enterprise size, by application and by industry vertical in the market. historic (2020-2025) and forecast (2025-2030) and (2030-2035) market values and growth and market share comparison by region market.
- Regional Market Size and Growth- Regional market size (2025), historic (2020-2025) and forecast (2025-2030, 2035F) market values and growth and market share comparison of countries within the region. This report includes information on all the regions Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa and major countries within each region.
- Competitive Landscape- Details on the competitive landscape of the market, estimated market shares and company profiles of the leading players.
- Other Major And Innovative Companies Details on the company profiles of other major and innovative companies in the market.
- Competitive Benchmarking- Briefs on the financials comparison between major players in the market.
- Competitive Dashboard- Briefs on competitive dashboard of major players.
- Key Mergers and Acquisitions- Information on recent mergers and acquisitions in the market is covered in the report. This section gives key financial details of mergers and acquisitions which have shaped the market in recent years.
- Recent Developments Information on recent developments in the market covered in the report.
- Market Opportunities And Strategies- Describes market opportunities and strategies based on findings of the research, with information on growth opportunities across countries, segments and strategies to be followed in those markets.
- Conclusions And Recommendations- This section includes recommendations for rich communication services providers in terms of product/service offerings geographic expansion, marketing strategies and target groups.
- Appendix- This section includes details on the NAICS codes covered, abbreviations and currencies codes used in this report.
Markets Covered:
- 1) By Type: Application-To-Person (A2P); Person-To-Application (P2A); Person-To-Person (P2P)
- 2) By Deployment Model: Cloud; On-Premise
- 3) By Enterprise Size: Large Enterprises; Small And Medium Enterprises
- 4) By Application: Rich Calls And Messaging; Marketing And Advertising Campaign; Value Added Services; Content Delivery; Other Applications
- 5) By Industry Vertical: Retail And E-Commerce; Banking, Financial Services And Insurance (BFSI); IT And Telecom; Healthcare; Other Industrial Verticals
- Companies Mentioned: Google (Jibe); Vodafone Group Plc; AT&T Inc.; Verizon Communications Inc.; China Mobile Communications Corporation
- Countries: China; Australia; India; Indonesia; Taiwan; Japan; South Korea; USA; Germany; Italy; Spain; UK; France; Russia
- Regions: Asia-Pacific; Western Europe; South East Asia; Eastern Europe; North America; South America; Middle East; Africa
- Time-series: Five years historic and ten years forecast.
- Data: Ratios of market size and growth to related markets; GDP proportions; expenditure per capita; rich communication services indicators comparison.
- Data segmentations: country and regional historic and forecast data; market share of competitors; market segments.
- Sourcing and Referencing: Data and analysis throughout the report is sourced using end notes.