Rich Communication Services
The mobile messenger market is expected to change as Samsung Electronics acquired NewNet Canada with a core technology of Rich Communication Services (RCS). It is forecast that as Google and Facebook have already entered the RCS market, the global messenger market is expected to grow rapidly. In the long term, Samsung Electronics is expected to have competition with social network services (SNS) such as Instagram.
RCS is a next generation mobile communication standard adopted by the Global Association of Mobile Operators (GSMA), a worldwide mobile carrier association. While the current text service simply exchanges texts, RCS is able to send voices, photos, videos and enables group chats.
“We acquired the company in order to secure relevant technology in preparation for the messaging market moving toward RCS," said a representative of Samsung Electronics. Samsung Electronics will earn royalties by securing RCS-related patents among others and providing solutions to mobile carriers, the representative explained.
"Korean telecom companies launched an RCS service called 'Joyn', but the RCS service lost to the Kakao Talk and Line," said a representative of the Korean mobile messenger industry. “It seems that this acquisition will build infrastructure for future services based on artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the long term," he said.
The Korean mobile messenger industry expects Samsung Electronics to launch its own messenger that will be built in its products such as smartphones and tablet PCs. By combining the acquired technology of VIV Labs acquired by Samsung Electronics last month, the company will be able to create “chatbots” and create various service ecosystems based on them. In the long term, Samsung Electronics may introduce a messenger that enables active real-time communication by mixing with its virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) technology.
Google and Facebook are rapidly entering the messenger-based AI chatbot service market. This indicates their strategies to provide diverse services and preempt ecosystems by using messengers as platforms.
Last month, Google took the wrap off its self-judging AI messenger “Alo,” which recommends candidate answers that can satisfy users. In addition, the global search giant launched an RCS-based mobile messenger service in cooperation with major US mobile carrier Sprint. Via the service, you can check whether or not the person chatting with you read your text message or if the person is typing reply texts in a chat window. All Android smartphones released for Sprint in the US next year will have built-in RCS. Facebook also unveiled a chatbot service that lets you ask the chatbot about weather and order the chatbot to order food and apply for package returns and more in real time via Facebook Messenger in April.