683 mln e-mail users worlwide, 130 bln e-mails sent daily

Radicati says there are about 683 mln email users worldwide, with nearly 1.2 bln active email accounts. These users send and receive 130 bln email messages per day, although two thirds of that is spam. ISP/Webmail accounts make up a large chunk of the world's email accounts (61%). MSN Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail continue to lead this market handily, but Radicati predicts Google's Gmail will make big strides in 2005. In regards to instant messaging (IM), the study shows strong growth in both corporate and consumer IM use. The IM Management segment of the market, which develops products to manage, archive and secure IM systems is poised for particularly strong growth, growing from $39 mln in 2005 to $118 mln in 2009.