Messaging is King

Despite all the hype this year and the various technological

innovations, messaging has not really changed that much. There were a few

instances of richer messaging technologies like video mail and voice mail coming

into the picture, but they are all so bandwidth intensive that even on local

area networks they have not caught on.

All this said, I will still say that messaging is king. It

still remains the killer application of the Internet world. This year, estimates

of the number of messages going through the Net are just skyrocketing. By the

end of the year the total number of e-mail messages is estimated to reach a

staggering 10 billion messages per day.

Last year, by the end of the year there were an estimated 569

million e-mail accounts, and by the end of next year there will be almost one

billion e-mail accounts. Estimates for India are also quite bright. At the end

of last year we had over 270,000 users and by the end of 2000, we will have an

estimated 1.5 million users. One thing that was noticed about Internet users in

India was that eight out of 10 calls (dial-up) to an ISP were not for the casual

surfer but by serious e-mail users. So we very much do contribute to the total

global e-mail statistics! In fact, on closer examination one will find that

e-mail usage in India is probably as high as anywhere else in the world, if not

higher. For some reason, technology acceptance in India has been much more rapid

than in other countries.

New technologies

As I said earlier, one of the few new technologies that came

along last year was voice mail. This year with the proliferation of web cams, it

was video mail. Fortunately, or unfortunately, this seemed to be only a passing

phase. Serious users came back to plain and simple text. Video mail is all well

for sending cute recordings of the grandson to his grandparents, but when it

comes down to business, plain text still rules.

One very significant change was the introduction of messaging

from other devices like cellphones and other wireless devices. This saw a

tremendous improvement this year. The most popular form of messaging of this

type is Short Message Service (SMS) provided by several cellular service

providers. Since August this year, almost nine billion SMS messages have been

through the various networks, and with SMS being free or very cheap in several

countries, this figure is shooting up. This year’s estimates have already

started getting revised on a global basis and the figures coming in are quite

amazing–more than 10 to15 billion messages per month is what we will average

by the end of the year. Asia alone contributes more than three billion messages

per month.

Privacy

One major issue this year concerning messaging has been

privacy. More and more users are becoming aware that they need to protect their

messages from prying eyes, whether it be their employers, competitors, or just

someone snooping around. Most of the popular e-mail clients now have plug-ins

for programs like PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), the usage of which has definitely

increased this year. Abroad, government agencies were talking about putting

systems to monitor all mail traffic, especially e-mails of known criminals or

suspicious characters. Of course, public opinion is against something like this.

Virus spread

A very serious problem with messaging this year was the

spread of viruses. Starting with the harmless ILOVEYOU things just got worse.

Virus spread via messaging systems could have very easily backfired but it did

not. People have realized how critical messaging is to their business, and

fortunately, viruses have been taken in their stride.

Junk mail

Another serious issue has been that of junk mail, or

unsolicited mail, about all kinds of things finding its way into your inbox and

plaguing you. Yes, a lot many messages from the billions per day have been junk

mail. But unfortunately, very little can be done about that even now. Spam

control and junk mail filters have been set up, but junk is still very much part

of daily life.

All said and done, it has been a very busy year as far as

messaging is concerned. Businesses around the world have realized the potential

of messaging and traffic trends indicate that it has been extensively utilized.

Kishore Bhargava is

the CEO of Linkaxis Technologies