Mobile phone users sent more than 5 trillion text messages last year, creating a $150 billion market, says Portio Research.
The research firm expects the number of texts will double by 2014 and the market to grow to be worth $233 billion.
It says the much-derided multimedia messaging (MMS) market was worth $27 billion in 2009, making it almost as big as SMS five years ago.
“MMS is growing fast in all major regions around the world as affordable camera-equipped handsets flood the market and increasingly become the norm,” Portia said.
It expects rapid growth in the IM market, with almost 1 billion regular IMs and $18 billion in sales by 2014.
Spending on mobile email will also triple over the next five years, Portia predicted.