Is Email Going Extinct?

Is Email Going Extinct?

Did you know that email as been around for the last 40 YEARS? It's only gotten popular in 1995 when AOL, Prodigy, and CompuServe became popular and email services like Hotmail came up around 1996 and 1997. Most would be surprised to know that the first email that was ever sent was from an engineer named Ray Tomlinson on June 8th, 1971. While email has been very useful in communicating with co-workers, family members, and friends in the last forty years, it has slowly started to become less of a necessity in the past ten. Why? The answer lies in the rise of social media.

Okay, so it's not solely social media but the rise of certain mobile devices that made things like texting, sending messages via social media and sharing information much easier. Facebook Messenger surpassed 1.2 billion users last year, and that number is only growing. It's one of the fastest private messaging apps on the web and on mobile. A lot of people do business on Messenger and on similar apps, like Slack, WhatsApp or GoogleHangouts. My last corporate gig used Google Hangouts and Skype. What does this mean? Are we as millennials just too impatient for email? Or is it just the fact that we found a better mousetrap?

I think it's the latter. In the old days, we used to take our complaints in an email and wait "5-6 business days" for an answer. With millennials expected surpass baby boomers by 2019 as the largest American generation, it's probably best to think of other ways of communicating than email. Communication is at a much faster rate now, you can expect a text or a private message within seconds versus minutes on email these days. This is extremely important for businesses to note because as I mentioned in my other blog, customer service is starting to take over social media as most people will take their concerns on many different platforms until someone answers them.

In any part of digital marketing, it's important to stay on the ball and keep your pulse on the latest updates in the field. For me personally, this is probably the most important update I have gotten in my entire career. According to a study done by the RadiCati Group "by the end of 2019, the number of worldwide email users will increase to over 2.9 billion.". This goes to show that email isn't dead, it's just on it's way out. Most companies will still keep it on the back burner for older generations, but it's far more likely that new generations will use other private messaging services for more streamlined processes.

Facebook Messenger, Slack, BaseCamp, and WhatsApp are all new and cutting edge ways to keep your customers, business partners, employees on the ball. Any business, both big and small, should be utlizing these tools in social media to keep up with America's largest generation of consumers, millennials. I can help you streamline your process and stay organized via social media. If you want to learn more, please don't be afraid to contact me at supriya@supriyaprasad.com.