Facebook to shake up email
EXPERTS expect Facebook’s new email service to provide a real threat to rivals such as Google and Microsoft.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg says the platform will offer integrated email,
chat and text messaging to its users. The firm believes it can take advantage of a fragmented communications market where internet users must switch between websites for different services.
Phil Story, consultant at email marketing firm eCircle told City A.M.: “Even if just 10 per cent of Facebook users adopt the service, that’s 50m people using it for everyday personal use. It will undoubtedly send shock waves through existing email services.”
Both Microsoft, through its Hotmail platform, and Google through Gmail have attempted to integrate social networking into their email offerings with limited success. Google this year scrapped its much-hyped Buzz social networking add-on to Gmail after a poor take-up from its users.