If you are an SMS Provider, Mobile Marketer, or someone who has worked in and around the mobile industry for some time – generally speaking, most of you would have at least some understanding of the SMS Provider market here in Australia.
Some SMS providers who have been around for a long time include Burst SMS (2009), Messagemedia (2000), MessageNet – now Salmat (1995), SMS Broadcast (2005) and SMS Global (2007).
When it comes to MMS however, the history and details around Australian MMS Providers becomes a little sketchier.
With a little help from Archive.org and by doing some research, we can see that SMS Global have been offering MMS messaging since around 2008. Soprano launched its Mobile Enterprise Messaging Suite, or MEMS, in 2006 and we’re not certain whether or not the first version of MEMS included MMS but it certainly does now. Telstra Integrated Messaging (TIM), based on MEMS was launched in 2007 and we understand that the Telstra/Soprano relationship continues to this day. TIM do offer MMS as part of their service offering.
At Thirdscreen, we were offering MMS services since pre-2007. Mobipost, a Bulk MMS messaging platform built by Thirdscreen was launched in 2008 and whilst no longer part of Thirdscreen, Mobipost continues to provide MMS mobile marketing services to this day.
If you look at the history of MMS messaging and marketing in the USA, there has been a very complicated history. MoGreet were one of the very early MMS Providers in the U.S. going back to 2006 and founded by James Citron. At one point, MoGreet claimed to by delivering up to two thirds of all MMS traffic in the United States. Through various acquisitions MoGreet and their derivatives all finally ended up as part of mGage – a major SMS Aggregator.
You can view MMS history in the U.S.A. on the Tatango blog post below. Tatango were founded in 2007 and are a SMS/MMS Provider in the United States. https://www.tatango.com/blog/what-happened-to-mobile-messenger-payvia-mogreet-and-outspoken/
Thirdscreen are now focused solely on the wholesale MMS market.
If you are an agency or reseller wanting to send property MMS campaigns please contact us for more information and rates. To request a copy of our MMS API documentation, use our request page here.
If you would like to contribute to this story with some insights of your own – feel free to do so in the comment box below.