One cannot really image today´s world without electronic mail. Two thirds of people over the age of 14 (61%) have an email address. There are hardly differences between West (62%) and East Germany (57%), but between genders. Men much more often have an email address (69%) than women (53%). The diffusion of email has consequences for email marketing and the customer service of companies.
The above figures come from a joint monthly survey called »WebMonitor» which is conducted by the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM) and the forsa polling firm and which is statistically representative.
»Emails have now completely become accepted in private and professional life as a way of communicating. They are one of the most widely used and most important services of the internet era«, says Prof. August-Wilhelm Scheer, who is BITKOM chairman, on the occasion of these figures in Berlin.
The usage of electronic mail is very popular in all age brackets. While in the age group of people aged between 18 and 29 years 87% have an email address, the number of email users between 45 and 59 is still 71%. Much more important in this context is education. Thus, 34% of Germans with CSE have an email address, while those with A-levels have one in 79% of cases. Independently of age or education it is a fact that civil servants are the front-runners in terms of email usage. In this group 89% have a private email address so that they use email even more than pupils and students (79%).
A nuisance to all users is unsolicited mail, so-called spam the percentage of which in proportion to all emails received amounts to approximately 80% according to BITKOM estimates. Most of these spam mails come from the US and China. Quite often they advertise drugs or financial products. BITKOM recommends never to answer to spam. Replies would be a sign to senders that the email address in question actually exists. 