Why Email is Still More Valuable than Twitter, Facebook

When you think about all the different types of real estate on the web, what are the ones you value the most? Is it Twitter, Facebook, or maybe your favorite website or blog? The most valuable one, according to an infographic by SmarterTools, is email. "In the Internet Age, email has become the most common unique identifier an individual possesses, surpassing things like Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers or other, more traditional means of identity," reads a post on the SmarterTools blog. There are, approximately, 2.9 billion email accounts. (I think that's worldwide but my one complaint with the infographic is that it doesn't specify if the data refers to the U.S. only or not.) That's three times the amount of Facebook and Twitter accounts combined. Break that down and it means 188 billion email messages are sent daily. By comparison, Facebook only has a paltry 60 million updates per day. Twitter sends out a bit more -- 140 million on a daily basis -- but that still isn't much compared to the billions of emails being sent out. The data, which was culled from a variety of sources, makes sense. It's impossible to have an online presence without an email account. You need one to sign up for any type of newsletter, to comment on sites, and to create accounts on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Not to mention the need to communicate with friends, family and colleagues. Here are some other cool stats on how email stacks up against the Internet and social media: The total posts on Facebook and Twitter combined adds up to 0.2 percent of all email traffic; The total number of pageviews on the Internet is only 25 percent of the total number of emails sent; The total amount of daily updates on Facebook and Twitter, searches on Google,Yahoo!, and Bing, and Internet pageviews combined are four times less than the amount of emails sent. Those are pretty impressive numbers. What is the value of email to you?

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Why Email is Still More Valuable than Twitter, Facebook

Elana Zak

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Elana Zak