Recent statistics suggest that messages sent via social media have overtaken SMS among Swedes.
Telecom providers have some conflicting data, but most agree that tech-savvy Swedes are opting to send quick messages via Twitter and Facebook from their mobile phones rather than through traditional text messages.
Erik Hörnefelt of Swedish mobile provider Tre said to TT reporters, “The big text message explosion is over. People use Facebook instead.”
Telecom firm Tele2’s recent figure showed that 30.7 million SMS messages were sent from 06.00 on New Year’s Eve to 06.00 on New Year’s Day, which the company said is a full four million fewer than were sent on the same night one year ago.
Similarly, Telia reported its users had sent a total of 28.4 million messages during the same time frame, marking a drop of 1.2 million from the previous year, while Tre said its customers had sent between 13 million and 14 million text messages, compared to nine million sent on normal days.
All four major telecom providers in Sweden say they believe that the drop in the use of text messages is due to the increased accessibility of social media through mobile devices.
Annika Christensson, information officer for Tele2 told reporters from the Dagens Nyheter news agency, “We see an increased use of social media. Many people want to be covered and therefore send messages both by text and Facebook.”