A key player in the creation of the incredibly active and growing SMS messaging ‘text generation,’ Clickatell is commemorating its 10-year anniversary with coverage of 820+ global carriers, 12,000+ customers, the largest SMS application developer community, and ability to reach an astounding 4 billion+ people around the world.

“Congratulations to Clickatell as they celebrate the past decade and enter the next one. As the mobile market rapidly takes hold, as Clickatell leads, I look forward to watching them advance this burgeoning market even further,” said Stuart Mackenzie, partner at Ethos Private Equity. “Businesses have just begun taking advantage of SMS messaging to connect, communicate and transact; over the next 10 years, Clickatell will remain at the forefront, providing enterprise messaging capabilities for critical applications.”

Just 18 years ago—on December 3, 1992—the first SMS message, “Merry Christmas,” was sent, initiating minimal messaging traffic at only 0.4 messages per month. Since then, SMS growth has skyrocketed: an astounding 4.1 billion messages are sent each day with no end to the soaring growth in sight.

“Since that first message, SMS has changed the way we connect to each other at work and at play, fast becoming a part of the fabric of our daily lives. Irrespective of who we are, where we’re from, or where in the world we are, we’re just a ‘text’ away and yet I believe we’re still in the early stages of discovering the ways SMS messaging will truly change our lives,” said Clickatell founder & CEO, Pieter de Villiers. “I’m extremely proud of our team’s commitment to delivering state-of-the-art messaging services and providing excellent customer service, because these are at the heart of our mission to continue delivering value-added messaging services.”

“SMS shows no signs of declining, as the mobile industry continues to find innovative ways in which this highly-penetrated information and service delivery channel can provide value to consumers and enterprise users alike, in both developed and emerging markets,” said Pamela Clark-Dickson, senior analyst for messaging at Informa Telecoms & Media. “We forecast that global SMS traffic will increase by 80.3% over the next five years, with mobile subscribers generating 6.3 trillion SMSes in 2014. Africa and the Middle East will experience the highest growth rates in SMS traffic over the forecast period.”

Clickatell provides application-to-person (A2P), high availability, value-added SMS messaging solutions to businesses and communities as they serve their customers in an increasingly competitive and mobile world, including all types of enterprises and Financial Institutions sending high value messages such as banking alerts, emergency responders sending alert messages, healthcare providers sending important health information, and many more.

“Just beginning to be utilized for banking, transactions, healthcare, transportation and much more, SMS continues to be the reigning mobile killer app, mainly because of its sheer ubiquity and ease of use. Especially important in developing regions where people must travel hours to reach their banks, and then have to wait 4+ hours in line, clearly the mobile phone gives people the freedom and safety that cannot be achieved otherwise,” said Red Gillen, senior analyst at Celent. “In the US, the pain points are different, but clearly, people love their cell phones and are quickly starting to want a variety of services via quick and easy SMS.”

Founded in June of 2000 by Pieter de Villiers, Casper de Villiers, Danie Du Toit, and Patrick Lawson, Clickatell created the first Global SMS Messaging Gateway and is still recognized globally as the #1 destination on the web for SMS enablement. The Company has won dozens of awards including the coveted Gartner ‘Cool Vendor,’ which recognized Clickatell’s easy-to-use, open platform to implement global SMS. Today, Clickatell’s Secure Enterprise Messaging Gateway provides individuals, developers, enterprises, and governments a proven method for expanding communications, productivity and profitability via the mobile device – which people of all demographics carry in their purses, pockets and backpacks and often check before they go to sleep and as soon as they wake up, all around the world.

A Snapshot of Value Given to Customers Over the Past Decade

2000–Clickatell, founded in Cape Town, South Africa, launches the world’s first pre-paid model for A2P mobile messaging supported by simple Web interfaces.

2005–Clickatell powers Oracle’s enterprise IT alert system to send real time, critical alerts to IT staff to keep its business operating smoothly.

2006–First National Bank uses Clickatell SMS to deliver critical text banking alerts to customers to prevent fraud and give people control of their money; Schools-SMS offers text alerts from schools to parents providing another immediate channel to protect students; Standard Bank implements Clickatell SMS Gateway to send SMS alerts to help customers gain tighter controls on their finances.

2007–Clickatell powers Metropolitan’s Cover2Go initiative to offer first ever, mobile insurance services via SMS messaging; Continental Airlines deploys SMS to weary travelers alerting them of scheduling, gate or destination changes. The European Commission alert officials via mobile—offered in 15 languages—providing immediate communications to alert on emergencies and global disasters so action can be taken; The UK’s National Health System (NHS) sends Clickatell SMS to citizens offering important health tips on many issues including quitting smoking, teen pregnancy, AIDS prevention, and more.

2008–Clickatell selected by VISA to deploy its mobile text and email notifications to Visa cardholders in partnership with leading banks; S1 and Clickatell partner to offer community, national and international banks mobile services; EMC’s RSA picks Clickatell to bundle enterprise security with SMS alerting solutions; CNN offers the world breaking summer Olympic news via SMS; Moneybookers employs Clickatell SMS messaging to reduce fraud and increase security for mobile wallets; Christie’s implements Clickatell SMS to offer “auction text alerts” to move more valuable merchandise.

2009–Clickatell delivers 2-way SMS excerpts of President Obama’s Ghana and Cairo speeches to millions around the world to create a “Mobile Town Hall,” giving everyone a voice; Clickatell wins Gartner’s Cool Vendor award honoring innovation and impact in messaging market; First National Bank wins Celent Model Bank award because of their innovative use of mobile SMS communications in the banking sector; mFoundry and Clickatell partner to serve banks wanting to send powerful SMS alerts to cut fraud; Microsoft SharePoint includes SMS alert capabilities to alert enterprise workers of changes in workflow; Premier Global implements SMS messaging to improve daily communications on travel, email, stock trades, banking, more; GFT, FirstGlobal, InfoTechnology, Fortis MFB, and many others sign up with Clickatell to alert customers via SMS on financial transactions; Hudson River landing government response teams including the US Coast Guard were alerted using Clickatell SMS, critical emergency messages which were critical to the life saving effort; Gartner predicts SMS-based money transfers will be more popular than mobile browsing and searching.

2010–Clickatell delivers free SMS messaging to support Haiti relief through Ushahidi and others giving the volunteers a way to immediately react and respond when food, water and medications arrive.

“I believe we are uniquely positioned with our value-added services, management and industry leadership to charge ahead into the next 10 years and beyond,” de Villiers concluded.

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About Clickatell

Clickatell, global provider of high value mobile messaging solutions, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. Working with 12,000+ customers, connecting through 820 networks, and reaching 4 billion+ individuals, and offering the world’s first Secure Enterprise Messaging Gateway, Clickatell is focused on innovation, customer satisfaction, and best practices. To learn more, please visit www.clickatell.com, or join the growing Clickatell Facebook and Twitter communities for updates, news, tips, and more.