Bosses at the World Economic Forum in Davos have suggested that email may be becoming obsolete for younger workers, with instant messaging platforms taking its place. Thierry Delaporte, chief executive of IT firm Wipro, which employs 260,000 people worldwide, said about 10% of his staff “don’t even check one email per month” and that he uses Instagram and LinkedIn to communicate with them. “They’re 25, they don’t care. They don’t go on their emails, they go on Snapchat, they go on all these things,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
Anjali Sud, chief executive of video platform Vimeo, also said at the summit that emails were “outdated”. The comments refer to Gen Z professionals – typically those born after 1997 – but some UK business owners say the trend cuts across all generations. Farhad Divecha, owner of London-based digital marketing agency Accuracast, said: “If I want something done quickly, I rarely rely on email myself. I tend to send a Teams message, or even WhatsApp if it’s really urgent.” He added that some clients with Gen Z employees prefer to use Slack instead of email.
Email has many rivals, including Instagram (2 billion monthly users), LinkedIn (875 million members), Snapchat (360 million daily users), WhatsApp (2 billion users) and Microsoft Teams (270 million users). However, email use continues to grow. According to tech research firm Radicati, the total number of business and consumer emails sent and received each day will exceed 333 billion in 2022, a 4% increase on the previous year, and will grow to more than 390 billion by 2026. More than half the world’s population – 4.2 billion people – uses email.
Sara Radicati, CEO of the research firm, said: “We don’t feel email is dying.” She noted that growth is driven by consumer use, such as online purchase notifications, and the need for an email account to set up social media or buy goods. However, she acknowledged that in the workplace, social media and instant messaging are playing a role alongside email. “Email tends to be used for official communications, while more interpersonal, casual communication is finding its way through social media and instant messaging,” she said.
Professionals interviewed by the Guardian described a mixed approach. Jordan, 28, a project manager from Bristol, said: “I use emails purely to talk about formal things that need to be written down. But for anything that is remotely informal, I move straight over on to Teams.” Tracy, 29, a scientific researcher from London, uses email formally at work but also uses Teams for quick checkups. Gen Z workers also said they use work email regularly. Matthew, 23, a human rights paralegal, said: “I generally check personal emails once a day and work emails regularly between 9 and 6.” Owen, 25, a programmer from Aberdeen, added: “Like any professional environment, my workplace uses email. Were I asked to check something like Instagram at work, I would expect some kind of wrongdoing was taking place.”
