Holiday Season Shows a Spike in MMS and Video Sharing Traffic Around the World

The holiday season is a time for spending time with family whether it’s face-to-face or through technology. Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) is arguably the easiest and fastest way to stay connected no matter the distance. Acision (News - Alert) has found a significant increase in MMS traffic over the holidays, specifically Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and New Years Eve.

Acision, a mobile message service provider, collected data over the holidays and found a tremendous spike in MMS usage, specifically video messaging in countries around the world including Europe, Latin America, North America and even Asia Pacific.

"This increase in the use of mobile messaging during the winter holidays is not entirely unexpected but it does confirm that MMS has shifted in our consciousness as a reliable way to reach loved ones with rich messages during this season," commented Jorgen Nilsson, chief executive at Acision, in a statement.

The results were recorded and compared to the same day of the previous week, and the greatest traffic increase was seen in Spain on New Year’s Eve with a 424 percent increase in MMS usage. Additionally, Christmas Eve followed in a close second with a 384 percent increase.

Being able to capture those special moments in a video, and share them for loved ones to enjoy is especially popular throughout the holidays. It’s the easiest and fastest way to stay connected with distant family and Spain once again saw the greatest leap in video traffic. On Christmas Eve, video traffic rose in Spain by 972 percent compared to the previous week.

"We put this surge down to consumers' increasing desire to share rich content and special moments, stimulated by the global phenomenon of social networking, which has also been made easier by the growing popularity of Smart devices and access to networking applications," Nilsson added.

Argentina and the U.S. also saw significant increases in MMS with a 475 percent and 289 percent increases respectively. During a 24-hour window, Acision enabled the delivery of over one million MMS messages in India, with similar numbers being seen during Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.