Before throwing all your effort into email marketing, you might wonder, “How many people in the world use email, anyway? Is email an outdated platform?”
It’s a legitimate question. You don’t want to devote your time, money, and resources into marketing on platforms that your audience doesn’t even use.
How many people in the world use email?
Read on to learn how many people use email globally, which email clients they use, and how to use these numbers to your advantage.
How often is email used?
Email usage is actually still growing at a rapid rate. By the start of 2019, there were an estimated 3.8 billion email accounts around the world, a 100 million increase from 2018.
Half of the global population uses email.
Over the past few years, smartphones and laptops have become more affordable to average working class people throughout the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Internet penetration rates based on region from Internet World Stats.
Source: Internet World Stats
Contrary to popular belief, young people are using email. Millennials spend more time scrolling through their inbox than any other generation, about 6.4 hours each day.
Both millennials and Generation Z audiences have quickly adapted to email for work, school, and keeping up with their favorite interests or brands. Many young people have two email addresses: one for social media and marketing material, and one for professional or personal communication.
Millennials spend an average 6.4 hours every day using email.
In addition, email is a necessity for doing just about anything online. You can’t create an account on Facebook or buy something without an email address.
What are the most popular email clients globally?
Although half of the population uses email, there are only a few email clients that maintain the market share (especially when you factor in smartphone apps).
Apple iPhone is the most popular email client, snagging the number one spot with 28% of the market share. Google’s Gmail runs a close second place at 27%. Third runner-up is Outlook at 9%.
This chart from Litmus shows which email clients are the most popular based on opens.
Source: Litmus
It’s important to know which email clients your subscribers use because each app and browser displays emails differently. Responsive email design has made it easy to design email marketing campaigns that look as intended across every device. If you’re coding your own emails, however, you’ll want to understand the differences so you can design your campaigns appropriately.
It also helps to know that email clients have different preferred subject line lengths, preview text length, and other subtle variances when sending campaigns.
Does it matter?
Understanding how many people in the world use email definitely matters. You want to make sure you’re devoting time and money to marketing that will actually influence the people you want to reach.
Almost everyone with internet access uses email because it serves as a perfect formal method of communication. You need an email address to communicate with work, register social media accounts, buy things on Amazon, and so much more.
What now?
Now that you understand how many people in the world use email, you need to figure out how you can use this to your advantage. Which people would you like to reach? Where do they live and how old are they? What kind of content would they enjoy reading from your brand? How can you personalize content to suit their interests? This will help you create the best email marketing campaigns possible. Are you ready to build an email marketing strategy? We have a detailed guide for beginners to get you started.