Email Is Still Alive and Thriving.

Email Is Still Alive and Kicking.

Wilm Tennagel, Corporate Communications Manager at MailStore, is talking about the praises of email beyond the limits of his office.

A few years ago, technology editor John Braydon said, "Email is already dead," and if you search the internet, you'll find that he's not alone in this opinion. However, do statistics confirm this statement? For example, in Germany, the percentage of the population using the Internet to send and receive emails has steadily increased between 2002 and 2019. According to a projection by Radicati Group, this trend is also valid globally: the number of emails sent and received worldwide is expected to increase from 4.2020 billion to 6.2024 billion.

Emails Are Reliable

Even in the business world, the popularity of email is increasing. Of course, it has replaced traditional analog letters in many areas and thus usually contains critical information and regulations from a business perspective. This normally leads us to the topic of email archiving, but since I want to continue praising email for a bit longer, I won't go into more depth at this stage - and there's a good reason for that.

According to the "E-Mail für Dich 2.0" study series, which is a research project on special communication in the DACH region, email is considered reliable and rated as a reliable means of communication compared to social media or instant messaging platforms. This is partially due to the fact that, compared to many other modern forms of communication, it has existed for a very long time. Indeed, it's celebrating its 50th birthday in 2021 and thus solidifying its place among the "best elders" and surviving the leap into the mobile age. It's still with us - and according to the above-mentioned market analysts' predictions, it will be for a long time yet.

Reasonable Reasons for the Popularity of Email

There are reasonable reasons why email remains "the most popular": it's service-oriented, message itself is not dependent on the technology used to read it and it's an open standard. Providers can be freely chosen, and both companies and individuals can even run their own email servers.

"Whether you're a Gmail addict or the recipient is a strict Outlook user, you can still send and receive messages. In other words, email has always maintained this basic functionality and necessity: open communication." Dvir Ben Aroya, CEO and Co-Founder, Spike

Unlike many chat programs, email communication can be archived in a legally compliant manner! Additionally, email is very multicultural and global. It can be used worldwide to the extent technology allows. Even though the use of social intranets, collaboration tools, etc., is increasing, I would still classify email as the "basic technology." How do you sign up for all these different services? With an email address. Moreover, transactional emails and notifications from these services are usually sent via email - by the way, this is one of the reasons for the continuously increasing volume of email traffic.

There's no need to say that email is not without its issues. Many company employees are victims of the phenomenon known as "email overload." It's important to raise awareness among users about phishing and scam emails.

Email Is Not a Social Collaboration Tool

But is it the email itself that's at fault? Isn't it more related to the lack of email management or a corporate culture where sending messages to as many people as possible to cover your back is a common practice? Email is not a project management or social collaboration tool. It's also not suitable for internal, dialogue-oriented communication. For example, at MailStore, we use Microsoft Teams for such purposes. However, the aim here is not to compare the fundamentals of emails and messaging applications, but rather to encourage the rational and purposeful use of communication tools - ideally living in harmony together. It's especially important for companies to consider the risks posed by services that can be likened to "walled gardens" and could potentially stop working, leading to the worst-case scenario where messages are no longer available.

In short, email is a reliable, secure, and purposeful means of communication. This is the case today and will be in the future, because the story of email has not yet ended. Email is still very much alive and kicking!

What's your opinion on this? I'm looking forward to reading your feedback in the comments section.

Source: Email Is Still Alive and Kicking - (mailstore.com)