Business & Technology | E-mail's alive and well despite reports to contrary | Seattle Times Newspaper

Not dead yet…

Although some social-networking websites are communication powerhouses — 500 million people are active Facebook users — e-mail is still critically important to Web users, social-media experts and e-mail service representatives. So when Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg declared e-mail dead at a Nielsen conference in June, e-mail industry officials bristled.

"People who are heavily involved with the social-networking world like to say everything except social networking is dead and dying," says Sara Radicati, of The Radicati Group of Palo Alto, Calif., which researches messaging and collaboration technology. According to a Radicati report, as of 2009, there were about 1.4 billion e-mail users, and that number is expected to rise to 1.9 billion by 2013. The group also reports that an estimated 247 billion e-mails were sent each day in 2009.

Business & Technology | E-mail's alive and well despite reports to contrary | Seattle Times Newspaper