E-mail remains the number one activity of Internet-enabled Canadians despite a growing amount of e-mail abuse such as spam, a new national survey shows.
The poll by market research firm Ipsos-Reid and emailthatpays.com reveals that most web-savvy Canadians couldn’t live without e-mail, which they use far more than any other Internet activities.
Eighty-eight per cent of online Canadians access their e-mail several times a week, the survey found, and 62 per cent do so daily. The average user receives 22 messages a day at work or home.
None of the more than 30 Internet categories that were tracked in the study – such as visiting news sites, checking the weather, online banking and downloading music – came close to e-mail in terms of frequency and impact.
However, the study found that e-mail information overload, coupled with more extreme forms of e-mail abuse, poses a significant problem for users.
Other findings include:
* About 85 per cent of online Canadians believe that e-mail has made them much more efficient in the workplace;
* Nearly two-thirds of respondents prefer to communicate with e-mail than through other methods – in fact, 52 per cent say they are so hooked on e-mail that they can’t live without it.
* About 43 per cent of Internet users say that their number one e-mail peeve is from unsolicited junk mail, known as spam. Other e-mail irks include unsolicited sales requests, chain letters, pornography, jokes and viruses (each mentioned by eight per cent or less of respondents).
Vancouver-based Emailthatpays is a ‘permission-based’ e-mail marketing company that provides clients with online direct marketing strategy and technology.
Web Watch:
www.emailthatpays.com
