Thursday, June 30, 2005

Is it the End for email?

The email era may be coming to an end because replacement communication means such as Internet messengers, mini-homepages (dubbed "one-man media") and SMS are wielding their power (in this case, I include the Blackberry - it’s email but it isn't, really). As a consequence, the stronghold of email, once the favorite of the Internet, is being shaken from its roots as a social means of communication.

The ebbing of email is a phenomenon peculiar to Korea, the leading Internet country. Leading the big change are teens and those in their 20's whose perception is that "email is an old and formal communication means".

A poll conducted by Chungbuk University in Korea surveyed over 2,000 middle, high school and college students in Gyeonggi and Chungcheong provinces. It revealed that more than two-thirds of the respondents said, "I rarely use or don't use e-mail at all."

I tend to agree. C'mon, the new generation hates agonizing and waiting and tends to express their feelings immediately. The decline of email is a natural outcome reflecting these characteristics of the new generation. And remember what I said a few entries ago about memetics.

The ebb of email is confirmed by a diminishing trend in email page views. Daum Communication, the top email service in Korea, saw its email service fall over 20 percent from 3.9 billion in October last year to 3 billion in October this year. By contrast, with SK Telecom, the nation's No. 1 communication firm, monthly SMS transmissions skyrocketed over 40 percent in October from 2.7 billion instances last October. Cyworld, a representative mini-homepage firm, witnessed its page views multiply over 26-fold from 650 million instances in October last year to 17 billion in October this year.

Let's face it, emails efficiency falls in terms of promptness, convenience and credibility. Most of the time, I email at work but I always SMS my friends.

With the continuous emergence of new technologies and social awareness, communication formats will develop even further in the future. Advertising and media standards are adjusting. Social behavior will be affected next.

Thing about how this applies to news alerts or relationship management programs. Maybe their right. It's time we start thinking again.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey this blog is not about internet phone

I have been doing hours of research on "voiceoverIP" and it brought me to your blog on this post. Anyways, J David Galipeau I was reading your blog and I think it is really cool. It’s really a pleasure reading your posts! Keep up the great work.

Keep blogging away :-)

6:15 AM, March 02, 2006  

Post a Comment

<< Home