Meta has published a new report on the increasing reliance of consumers on commercial messaging

For many businesses and consumers, messaging has become an increasingly important communication tool Now more than 20 billion messages are sent between people and brands on Messenger alone every month. It’s convenient, generally responsive, and available in apps that people find convenient for their interactions. In fact, 64% of people now say they’d rather text a business than call it.

With this in mind, Meta recently revealed a partnership. of Boston Consulting Group In a survey of more than 6,500 respondents across the APAC region, APAC consumers want to use messaging for brand inquiries to gain more insight and how businesses can best adapt to these shifts.

The 29-page report, which you can download here, includes many valuable insights into the importance and value of messaging. Here is the reason for this.

First, the report looks at the growing trend of commercial messaging and how this has changed the epidemic.

Global blockchains have fueled the boom in ecommerce activity, and as such, it’s no surprise that reliance on business messaging has increased in recent years. But that’s a key trend of note for brands — as more consumers do more of their communication through messaging and other online channels, that means they expect the same options from other businesses.

The report also offers a somewhat surprising look at how often people are messaging with brands:

That’s a lot of activity, which seems to have more impact than raw numbers, when it comes to message volume. Many consumers interact with brands on a daily basis, so not only are they using this as a complementary communication channel, it’s quickly becoming an essential link for business.

The report also looks at the different ways brands use messaging in their processes:

Also, the main pain points when messaging with brands to consumers are:

Here are some interesting insights to consider in your planning. In fact, if you’re not offering or facilitating direct messaging as a communication option, you’re probably missing out. And while this data is APAC specific, many of these trends can be captured in other regions as well, giving you some fodder for your planning, especially in the push towards holiday sales.

You can download Meta’s full ‘Business Messaging: The Quiet Channel Revolution Across Tech’ report here.