Editor’s note: This article was first published in December 2010, and the news it reports about Spain was current then: Christmas SMS volumes, Facebook’s plans with Skype, Telefónica’s purchase of Tuenti and the ranking of Tuenti, Facebook and Twitter all describe that moment. Tuenti later closed as a social network.
According to official figures, so far this year the number of text messages sent to wish people a merry Christmas has fallen by more than 55%, and we take it for granted that a large share of people won’t use this kind of greeting to wish people a happy New Year either.
The SMS business has been hit by the crisis, so people are turning to free services to send Christmas greetings, such as email and social networks, where Facebook, Twitter and Tuenti (a Spanish social network) have become the leading channels for this.
This drop in greetings will undoubtedly hurt telephone companies financially and will eventually force them to look for alternatives for their business, because as social networks become integrated into mobile phones, we’ll turn to them rather than spend money when we can do the same thing for free.
That’s why Facebook wants to incorporate Skype and Telefónica bought Tuenti. Social networks are the future of communication, and in time they will put an end to telephony as we know it today.
The biggest increase in greetings in 2010 was on Tuenti, which Spaniards chose after Facebook to send their virtual cards and video greetings. Twitter is still the least used by Spaniards.
Further reading
Featured image: MikroLogika, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
