Email churn surges into the tens of billions

Although it might seem like everybody you know sends you email everyday, as well as lots and lots of people you don’t know, apparently you ain’t seen nothing yet. IDC is claiming that email volumes are going to soar to staggering levels over the next few years as more and more people move online and businesses increasingly turn to electronic means for their business dealings. The number of email mailboxes is predicted to top more than 1.2 billion by 2005, up from 505 million in 2000, thanks to the staggering growth rate, which will hit a compound annual growth rate of 138 per vcetn , of new email account holders. Naturally, this doesn’t mean that there will be that number of people using email – as many of them will be repeat holders with business, private and personal accounts – but it still means your inbox is going to get pretty busy. IDC estimates that the churn of emails is going to grow at such a phenomenal rate that by the end of 2005, the number of person to person emails, which will exclude all of the automated responses and fulfilment emails you will receive, will hit 36 billion worldwide. According to IDC this will have a dramatic effect on the browser market too as more and more people are using browsers to access their email. By 2003, in fact, IDC reckon that 50 per of all email accounts will be accessed through browser.