A wave of startups is betting that text messaging will surge as a way for influencers, media companies, and brands to reach fans – and make money

• After building audiences on social media, many influencers, reporters, and media companies have chosen text messaging as the next frontier to interact with fans.
• A slew of new startups and established players have emerged to serve them, including Community, Subtext, SimpleTexting (a division of MessageMedia), and Mailchimp, which announced it was acquiring a text-marketing startup called Chatitive on Monday.
• Insider spoke with executives in the text-marketing industry and their customers to learn why members of the media industry are blasting out texts.

In April, TikTok creator and movie star Addison Rae Easterling tweeted out her phone number to her more than one million followers.

Fans who texted the number were politely asked to fill out a form to share their name, gender, age, and location.

“Hii! :),” Easterling wrote to her new contacts. “This is an automated message to let you know I got your text. Once you fill out the info in the link, I’ll be able to respond to you personally! Can’t wait to connect with you! Love, Addison Rae <3.”