Are Social Networks Replacing Email Yet?

Published: November 7, 2007, 2:22 pm

For the first time last month, traffic to social networks overtook traffic to web-based email services in the UK. Top networks Facebook, Bebo and MySpace took 5.17% of all UK Internet visits, with only 4.98% going to email services including Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Gmail. So what does this mean? It emphasizes the shift in online behavior as it moves from email clients to social networks. Ten years ago, your online activity revolved around your email. It still does now, to a certain extent, but the manner in which go access your email and receive messages from others is evolving. You can log into your MySpace account and find a slew of messages from friends and spammers, just like your email inbox. Or you can go to Facebook and get all of your feeds, nearly eliminating the need for email–everything that’s going on with your friends is laid out for you in a nice little social stream. So does this mean that social networks are replacing web-based email clients?

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