Is the Death of Email Upon Us?

According to a latest Nielsen Report, social networking sites and blogs have overtaken the popularity of email as the preferred medium of online communication today. Based on the report two thirds of online users are now using what Nielsen calls us “member communities”. In fact these member communities are now the “fourth most popular web category” following search engines, web portals and PC software. Email was now pushed down to the fifth category. Interestingly, aside from the increasing membership of social networks, and the growing popularity of blogs as a form of communication, what contributed to the growth of the so called “member communities” was related to the growing usage of mobile phones for accessing these “member communities” sites. The study found out that in the UK around 23% of the online users tend to visit social networking sites when they use their phone for mobile web browsing. In the U.S. this percentage is slightly lower at 19%. It is not really surprising that social networking sites and blogs have become more popular than email as a form of communication though. Since email has become popular, and so was its major problem which has beset users for decades now – Spam. And up to now, not a single email provider has successfully offered a 100% full-proof email service. Somehow those who perpetrates email spam managed to continue doing their activities despite various efforts to prevent them. But of course, this is not to say that social networks and blogs are spam-free or even problem-free. Facebook for one was recently attacked by virus. The thing is, social networking sites as compared to email are still in its maturity stage. And so its full potential as a haven for spam and malware has not been fully explored by bad elements online. And for as long as social networking sites and blogs managed to stay as farther away from spam, malware and other threat to users, we should expect these online communications tools to become ever more popular. And perhaps in time, these tools may cause the death of email.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.