Statistics

Messaging

Spam

• Spam now accounts for 73% of all email traffic, up from 40% in 2003
• 17% - 38% of legitimate messages (opt in) are blocked as spam by ISPs and email services
• Of the subscribers who opt in to receive email from ethical publishers, only 40% of messages are opened
• Almost 20% of UK businesses report that half of all email is unwanted junk email
• Less than 20% of UK businesses report that they are taking active measures to filter junk mail
• 42% of UK workers missed a deadline due to an email message gone astray, two thirds have had legitimate messages blocked by the company's spam filter

Sources: MessageLabs survey, 2005; ReturnPath & Mail.com study, 2003; Information Security Breaches survey (for the DTI), 2004; Infosecurity Europe Conference (with Mirapoint), 2005

Email futures

• 60% of companies claim they will give up email if the threat posed by viruses, spam and other unwanted content is not contained and a viable alternative emerges
• 40% are worried by current email security threats to business
• Less than 15% believe email applications will remain the same over the next decade.  Two thirds think it will merge with other messaging applications, such as wireless and IM

Source: MessageLabs survey, 2004

Instant Messaging

• 90% of respondents had an Internet access policy
• 49% had no policy concerning the use of IM and peer-to-peer applications
• 90% of organisations had employees using at least one form of IM application in 2004
• 78% of workplace IM users had downloaded IM software from the Internet

Source: SurfControl survey, March 2005

Cost of Ownership

• 77% of Financial IT Directors do not know the TCO for their messaging systems
• Over 50% use more than 1 supplier, nearly 20% use more than 4 different providers
• 65% expect increases in compliance costs

Source: MORI (on behalf of BT), 2005

Outside the Envelope

Written communication in the UK is now dominated by email and text messaging:

• Email = 49%
• SMS texts = 29%
• Pen & paper = 12%
• Instant messaging = 10%

Source: NewScientist magazine, March 2006

Working Habits

Search is No.2 in US households

• Email is still tops - 77% access it daily, but down from 85% in 2004
• Search is No.2 - 63% use it daily, up from 56% in 2004
• News has dropped to No.3 - 46% use it daily, down from 56% in 2004
• Users average 24 minutes per day on email, compared to 4 minutes on Search

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project, comScore Media Metrix.  Survey conducted in September 2005.

Death of the Desktop PC

• By 2006, only 45% of corporate users will rely on a traditional desktop as their primary information device, while 40% will mainly use a notebook or tablet PC
• By 2007, the average user will "interact regularly" with at least 4 types of computing device: a home PC, smart digital entertainment system, corporate computer, and mobile information device

Source: META Group, 2004

Lack of I.T. training

• 40% of computer users have received any IT training
• 90% of new jobs require IT skills
• 67% of employees think the staff's level of IT skills 'defines' the impact on productivity

Source: E-Skills UK survey, 2006

• Every hour of professional end-user training is worth five hours to the business - Gartner research
• 2m people in the UK are thought to have gaps in their IT skills and roughly a third of companies are finding it hard to fill vacancies for IT staff

(Reported in Financial Times, 12 July 06)

Proving the 1% Rule

"If you get a group of 100 people online then one will create content, 10 will "interact" with it (commenting or offering improvements) and the other 89 will just view it"

• YouTube - daily there are 100 million downloads and 65,000 uploads = creator:consumer ratio of 0.5
• Wikipedia: 50% of all article edits are done by 0.7% of users, and more than 70% of all articles have been written by 1.8% of users

(Reported in The Guardian, 20 July 06, diagrammed by Bradley Horiwitz, Yahoo, Feb 06) )

Mobile Habits

• Starting age of mobile phone ownership:51% of 10 year olds and 70% of 11 year olds own a mobile phone
• Number of mobiles: 14% of people have two or more mobile phones that they use regularly
• Number of calls: On average people make 2.8 calls a day
• Number of texts: On average people send 3.6 text messages a day
• Phone replacement: 70% of people replaced their mobile phone within the last 18 months
• PAYG vs contract: Of people who own their own mobile phones (as opposed to having a company phone) 48% have PAYG and 52% have monthly contracts
• Choosing a mobile: When choosing a mobile phone, the most important factor for people phone is function ( 31%), price ( 29%) and style ( 16%)

Mobile Life Survey, conducted by YouGov Sept 2006, interviewed 16,500 British adults who use mobile phones