Email, portals stay ahead of social networking—at least on mobile devices

AUGUST 13, 2010

Social networking has become such a staple of online activity in the US that, according to Nielsen, internet users spent more time on social networking sites and blogs than doing any other activity in June 2010. Games, which came in second, took up less than half as much time.
On the mobile internet, however, more traditional activities still reign. Email dominated the mobile picture even more strongly than social networking did the desktop: If all time spent on the mobile web was condensed into a single hour, US internet users would have spent 25 minutes in June checking email. Portals would have received another 7 minutes, with social networks not far behind.

Nielsen reported that social networking has been closing the gap in time spent on the mobile internet, gaining share since last year as portals dropped in importance over the same period.
But email remains one of the most popular mobile internet activities not just by time spent but also by penetration. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 34% of all US mobile subscribers used email on their phone in May 2010, compared with 23% who used a social networking site.
comScore also reported mobile email usage via a browser ahead of social networking. That research found search had the highest penetration of any mobile browsing activity, but search is less time-intensive than email or social sites.

Social should continue to make gains in the mobile realm, however. comScore reported it was the fastest-growing mobile internet activity between 2009 and 2010, rising 80% in usage, while email grew more slowly. Bridge Ratings predicted in June that mobile social networking would grow twice as quickly as email during the next 12 months.
The growing penetration of smartphones will be a key factor in increased mobile social networking. According to comScore, 53% of smartphone users participated in social networking activities on the go, compared with just 11% of feature phone owners.
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comScore Releases Top Online Email and Instant Messenger Applications for Brazil in December 2009

Windows Live Hotmail Leads the Email Market While Google Gmail Posts Strong Gains in the Past Year

Sao Paulo, Brazil, February 2, 2010 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a report on the top web-based email and instant messenger applications in Brazil for December 2009. The data showed that Microsoft held the leading position in each category with Google and other brands demonstrating substantial growth.

“Microsoft continues to have a firm grip on many consumer applications in the Latin American marketplace,” said Alex Banks, comScore managing director of Latin America. “However, several other consumer brands are also flexing their muscles in this developing market, including Google and Yahoo! It will be interesting to see how the competitive landscape changes over the next year or two with so many consumer-focused Internet brands taking part in this digital gold rush.”

Top Web-Based Email Applications

In December, more than 24 million Brazilians age 15 and older visited web-based email sites from home and work locations, up 18 percent versus last year, with a large majority of these users (20 million) accessing Hotmail. Google Gmail ranked second with 8.4 million visitors, up 51 percent from last year, followed by Yahoo! Mail with 7.1 million visitors (up 20 percent) and UOL Mail with nearly 4 million visitors (up 14 percent). Interestingly, 34 percent of Hotmail users also visited Gmail, while a far higher 81 percent of Gmail users also visited Hotmail.

Top Web-Based Email in Brazil December 2009 vs. December 2008 Total Brazil, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations Source: comScore World Metrix
	Total Unique Visitors (000)
	Dec-2008	Dec-2009	% Change
Total Internet : Total Audience	27,688	33,315	20
e-mail	20,422	24,019	18
Windows Live Hotmail	16,987	20,102	18
Google Gmail	5,572	8,393	51
Yahoo! Mail	5,940	7,126	20
UOL Mail	3,481	3,977	14
iG Mail	1,985	1,974	-1
Terra Brasil E-mail	N/A	1,015	N/A
GloboMail	256	732	186
UMAIL.COM.BR	96	441	359
DIRECTMAILS.COM.BR	310	386	24
Oi Mail	389	337	-13

Top Instant Messenger Applications

Microsoft holds an even more commanding position in the Brazilian instant messenger market, accounting for 96 percent of the 22.4 million visitors to the category. However, while the category on the whole is growing significantly more slowly (up 5 percent) than the total Brazilian Internet audience (up 20 percent), several smaller players in the instant messenger category are growing at substantial rates. Second ranked EBuddy.com grew 330 percent in the past year to 1.8 million visitors, followed by Meebo with 840,000 visitors (up 103 percent) and Iminent.com with 686,000 visitors (up 1,236 percent).

Top Instant Messengers in Brazil December 2009 vs. December 2008 Total Brazil, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations Source: comScore World Metrix
	Total Unique Visitors (000)
	Dec-2008	Dec-2009	% Change
Total Internet : Total Audience	27,688	33,315	20
Instant Messengers	21,385	22,431	5
Windows Live Messenger	21,133	21,561	2
EBUDDY.COM	419	1,802	330
Meebo, Inc	415	840	103
IMINENT.COM	51	686	1,236
Yahoo! Messenger	244	495	103
Skype Instant Messenger (App)	28	352	1,166
PONTOSMS.MOBI	N/A	338	N/A
PLUGOO.COM	310	270	-13
Google Talk (App)	171	162	-5
IMO.IM	27	95	248

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

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The Death of Email (yay!)

With the rising popularity of Instant messenger, Twitter-style status updates in social networks and other alternate forms of online communication, it is not surprising to see the continued decline of email usage among younger Internet users.

I first came across the trend about 3 years ago or so at Ola Ahlvarsson’sSIME conference in Sweden, where he cleverly had a panel of young people interviewed about their online habits. (The panel’s premise being that Internet usage is becoming increasingly segmented in style. A venture capitalist looking to invest in an Internet start-up can no longer assess it personally in terms of “I think I’d use that”. This is especially true of a VC older than 30 years old.)

On that SIME panel one of the students explained that email was so passe that he only used emails when communicating with authority figures, such as teachers or parents. Otherwise, the proliferation of new communication channels were the place to get in touch with friends. I got a similar response from a university student who attended a Blogger meet up in Malaysia two weeks ago.

To the older crowd (25+ years old) email remains popular, but the number of new channels is still growing. Twitter, status updates, IM and - soon - Google Wave. While the proliferation of new channels may annoy and depress some (”I have to sign up for ANOTHER service??!!”), I find it an exciting place to be.

We are now learning to communicate in ways that previous generations could not. Great time to be alive!

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10 Levels of Intimacy in Today's Communication

The digital age has changed the ways in which we share our most important opinions and innermost secrets. The latter are usually reserved for our closest of acquaintances, but we don’t necessarily use the most personal approach to broach these delicate details. The combination of technology and weight of information has given us new rules for just how to break the news. Ji Lee’s 10 Levels of Intimacy in Today’s Communication is both an interesting and absurd display of the redefinition and possible redistribution of how we continue on with our most cherished connections.

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Integrating E-Mail and Social Media

DECEMBER 10, 2009

Tried-and-true plus shiny-and-new

Business executives around the world are optimistic about next year, according to the “2010 Marketing Trends Survey” from StrongMail. Nearly nine in 10 plan to increase or maintain their marketing budgets, and one-half expect their customers to be spending more in the coming year.

E-mail and social media top the list of marketing tactics respondents will increase spending on in 2010. Search came in third.

Combining social media and e-mail marketing is a growing trend. More than four in 10 business executives said integrating the two tactics was one of their most important e-mail marketing initiatives for 2010, just after improving performance and targeting and growing opt-in lists.

Around one-quarter of respondents had already implemented an integrated strategy, and another 24% had formulated a strategy and were researching how to put it in practice. But 18% of business executives wanted to add social components into their e-mail campaigns and did not know where to begin.

Even after getting initiatives off the ground, success can be difficult to achieve—and measure. Although 42% of executives reported a lift in campaign performance after integrating social and e-mail, 35% saw no improvement, and 23% did not know how to measure their results.

“While an unprecedented number of companies look to integrate email and social media in 2010, the data shows that companies need to adopt new tools and strategies to properly measure and monetize their efforts,” cautioned Bill Wagner, executive vice president of business operations at StrongMail, in a statement.

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Check out today’s other article, “eMarketer Weighs In on 2010 Trends: UK & Europe.”  

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Email Marketing HubSpot May 2009

Email Marketing HubSpot May 2009

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