Messaging bots new opportunities

Mobile-centric messaging
as new interface
new opportunities
2016.03

- Texting as new habit and universal interface
- Current messaging landscape
- Key dimensions for business opportunities
Dmitry Matskevich: telegram.me/dmatskevich facebook.com/dmitry.matskevich

1.Texting as new
habit + new
universal interface
“Text-based interaction is fast, fun, funny,
flexible, intimate, descriptive and even
consistent in ways that voice and user
interface often are not.” — Jonathan Libov

Brief history of text messaging

Messaging has been the fastest-growing online
behavior within the social landscape over the past
five years, passing social networks

Mobile centric messaging are very different from
other communication channels (email, calls, …)
1) Free
2) Long lived (on the record)
3) Asynchronous (by expectation) but can be
synchronous
4) 24*7
5) Grouped by people, not by topic (as emails)
6) Ordered by most recent activity (inbound or
outbound) - don’t eliminate while answered
7) Universal interface (in contrast to GUI of different
apps)
8) More effortless than voice
9) Forces us to be concise
10) Works well in 1:1, 1:N, and M:N modes
11) Can be indexed and searched efficiently

Cognitive ease
Repeated experience
Free
Familiar interface
Good mood
Positive context
No pressure
High ability
Feels familiar
Feels true
Feels good
Feels effortless
Texting is for cognitive ease

Text is comfortable, funny and responsive (stats)
1. Texting is the most widely-used and frequently used app on a smartphone, with 97% of
Americans using it at least once a day. (Pew Internet)
2. Text messages have a 98% open rate, while email has only a 20% open rate. (Mobile
Marketing Watch)
3. Text messaging has a 45% response rate, while email only has a 6% response rate. (Velocify)
4. 90% of all text messages are read in under 3 minutes. (Connect Mogul)
5. Text messages are read on average in under five seconds. (SlickText)
6. The average adult spends a total of 23 hours a week texting (USA Today)
7. The average Millennial exchanges an average of 67 text messages per day (Business Insider)
8. On average, Americans exchange twice as many texts as they do calls (Nielsen)
9. Only 43% of smartphone owners use their phone to make calls, but over 70% of smartphone
users text (Connect Mogul)
10. 55% of heavy text message users (50+ texts per day) say they would prefer to receive a text
over a phone call (Pew Research Center)
11. In 2011, 31% of Americans said they preferred text messages to phone calls (Pew Research
Center)
12. It takes the average person 90 minutes to respond to email, but only 90 seconds to respond to
a text message. (CTIA)
13. American women text 14% more than men. (Nielsen)

Text is well suited for businesses interface (stats)
1. 38% of contact centers currently offer SMS, and 23% have plans to add it in the next 12
months. That means 61% of contact centers will offer SMS support in 2016. (Dimension Data)
2. 80% of people are currently using texting for business. (eWeek)
3. The activities people with text capabilities would most prefer to do via text are: check order
status (38%) schedule or change appointments (32%) and make or confirm reservations
(31%). (Harris poll)
4. Over half of customers said they would be likely to text with a customer support agent.
Similarly (eWeek)
5. A 2012 study found that text was the highest rated contact method for customer satisfaction
out of all other customer communication channels. (CFI Group)
6. Millenials prefer automated text messaging over IVR,(Frost & Sullivan)
7. Sales prospects who are sent text messages convert at a rate 40% higher than those who are
not sent any text messages. (Velocify)
8. Over 80% of people use text messaging for business, and 15% said that more than half their
messages are for business purposes. (eWeek)
9. 44% of consumers with texting capabilities would prefer to initiate a text conversation
immediately, rather than waiting on hold to speak with an agent. (Harris Poll; link below)
10. Nearly 70% of employees think their organization should use text messaging to communicate
with employees (Vitiello Communications Group)
11. 64% of all consumers are likely to have a positive perception of a company that offers texting
as a service channel (Harris Poll; link below).

New internet users most likely to onboard via
messaging platforms

Messaging will add 1.1 Billion new users by 2018

Not “one size fits all” - many people use different
messenger apps for various use cases

2.Current messaging
landscape
“I’ve seen the new face of search, and it ain’t
google.”

1) Mobile messaging apps are massive. Falling data prices, cheaper devices, and
improved features are helping propel their growth. New users onboard with
messengers.
2) Messaging apps are about more than messaging. The first stage - growth. Next
phase - building out services and monetization
3) Popular Asian messaging apps like WeChat, KakaoTalk, and LINE have taken the
lead in finding innovative ways to keep users engaged.
4) Media companies, and marketers are still investing more time and resources into
social networks like Facebook and Twitter than they are into messaging services.
That will change as messaging companies build out their services and provide more
avenues for connecting brands, publishers, and advertisers with users.
Key takeaways

The most famous plot to pitch investors on your bot
idea:)

Messaging Apps = Top Global Apps in Usage +
Sessions

The messaging boom is about price—sending an
SMS is up to 63x more expensive outside the U.S.,
while messaging apps are flat-fee or free

Facebook’s WhatsApp and Messenger are the only
global players, leaving them in the best position to
capitalize on messaging

In Asia-Pacific, local messaging apps dominate in
the largest countries, but in Southeast Asia global
players are competing

As major Asian messaging platforms reach scale,
they have launched new first-party and third-party
services as apps on top of messaging, capturing
significant messaging revenues

As major Asian messaging platforms reach scale,
they have launched new first-party and third-party
services as apps on top of messaging

Messenger API status
Whatsapp Announced his plans to build and API
WeChat WeChat API
Facebook messenger Business pages API, messenger API coming soon -
mixed between closed Asian model and Telegram open
platform
Viber Closed API, open API coming soon
Line Line Partner
Telegram Opened platform - Bot API, Telegram API
Kakao Talk Kakao Developers
Google hangout Probably relaunch hangout and build an API
KiK API opened for selected businesses
More and more messengers open API for third-party
services

New consumer businesses are being built on
messaging platforms — messaging bots

3. Key dimensions
for business
opportunities
“Thank god I don’t need to download another
fucking app for this.”

1) To see the future of mobile messaging go
South Eastern Asia (mobile leapfrogging in
SEA)
2) Infrastructure companies
3) New companies — ‘Assistant for X’
4) Existing Companies and Organizations
New business opportunities

Some examples

Texting with Bus Time

You can choose product, take sales assistance,
confirm purchase in one interface

To see the future of mobile messaging go to
South Eastern Asia (mobile leapfrogging in SEA)
Southeast Asia Is Leading The World’s Most
Disruptive Mobile Business Models

SEA it truly mobile first region

In Thai more than 50%
in Line messenger
She can manage the
“site” and respond to
inquiries on mobile while
sitting here all day
The motorcycle taxi
around the corner can
make quick deliveries if
needed

C2C Models: The Six Steps To Quick Social
Commerce In Southeast Asia

These services don’t offer “a great experience” but
are ”good enough” and offer a good balance of
reach, effort, functionality and adaptability

B2C Models: Line grocery delivery pilot in Thailand

Infrastructure companies

There is a tremendous amount to build for the
ecosystem
Discoverability. Opt-in strategies.
User text interface generation
Aggregation.
Meaning extraction. Preprocessing. Recognition.
Automated request processing
...
Human request processing
Operational infrastructure
Marketing platforms. Opt-in widgets
Bot constructors
API Connectors
NLP/AI
AI. Personalization.
CRM. Support ticketing systems
Analytics. Payments. Hosting.

1. An’t yet to early to build X part for the
ecosystem? Are businesses ready to use this?
2. Is this the best entry point to the market?
There are some questions

New companies — ‘Assistant for X’

Message us, and we’ll assist you with X thing.
with a bot with a human
Digit - personal finance
Vango - personal art
advisor
Luka - restaurant
recommendations
Larry - legal assistant
…
Assist - personal assistant
Operator - shopping
assistant
Pana - travel concierge
PS Dept - personal shopper
...
Facebook M - anything
Magic - personal assistant
...
SpecificverticalHorizontalaggregators

1. Distribution in a cost effective way?
2. If they aren’t human powered, is the interaction
actually better than a UI?
3. Could AI really automate the communication in
chousen scope?
4. If they are are human-powered, how and when
will the unit economics make sense?

Existing Companies and Organizations

For every industry

For every step in value creating activities within an
industry (ex agriculture)

For every block of a company internal value chain

For every step in consumer messaging chain

1. Distribution in a cost effective way?
2. Viral rate? Viral cycle?
3. First integration cycle?
4. One-to-One b2b solution or potential to become
a platform?
5. Barriers to entry - network effect (good) or better
salesteam/product/AI/someothershit (not good)?

Reports and slides
1. http://www.businessinsider.com/the-messaging-app-report-2015-11?IR=T
2. http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends
3. http://www.slideshare.net/ActivateInc/activate-tech-and-media-outlook-2016
4. http://www.slideshare.net/yiibu/the-emerging-global-web
Essays and articles
5. https://medium.com/@ben8128/the-messaging-landscape-in-2016-13b25cdf2f6e#.f6omkbt9t
6. http://whoo.ps/2015/02/23/futures-of-text
7. https://wit.ai/blog/2015/01/05/wit-ai-facebook
8. http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2015/12/28/future-messaging-app-spells-end-google-we-know/77847504/
9. https://medium.com/chris-messina/conversational-commerce-92e0bccfc3ff#.9e3fus6lj
10. http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/08/why-southeast-asia-is-leading-the-worlds-most-disruptive-mobile-business-models/#.
hmsqr3k:YLDj
11. https://medium.com/@saranormous/clippy-s-revenge-39f7387f9aab#.os69lkpue
12. https://medium.com/chris-messina/2016-will-be-the-year-of-conversational-commerce-1586e85e3991#.94fvp5pnu
13. http://www.nirandfar.com/2015/07/why-assistant-as-an-app-might-be-the-next-big-tech-trend.html
14. https://www.facebook.com/notes/david-marcus/heres-to-2016-with-messenger/10154485804004148
15. http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2015/11/features/inside-facebook-messenger
16. https://www.fin.ventures/letters/on-bots-conversational-apps-and-fin
17. http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/18/the-message-is-the-medium-reasons-assistants-as-app-work/
18. https://www.ouvre-boite.com/messaging/
19. http://dangrover.com/blog/2014/12/01/chinese-mobile-app-ui-trends.html#chatasui
20. http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2014/8/1/app-unbundling-search-and-discovery
21. http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2014/11/20/time-for-new-questions-in-mobile
22. https://medium.com/welcome-aboard/batman-onboarding-999d19f0cab9#.7w68y2wo2
23. http://blog.layer.com/every-app-is-a-communications-app/
24. https://stratechery.com/2014/messaging-mobiles-killer-app/
App lists
25. https://www.producthunt.com/@rrhoover/collections/invisible-apps
26. https://www.producthunt.com/@thinker/collections/sms-text-based-services
27. https://www.producthunt.com/e/slackbots-and-integrations
28. https://www.producthunt.com/@chrismessina/collections/convcomm
Resources

Ideas?
Dmitry Matskevich
telegram.me/dmatskevich
facebook.com/dmitry.matskevich

Messaging bots new opportunities

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