The evolution of email use over time

Email was not always what it is today! There was a time when it was reserved for a small technological elite.

But in the last 20 years, email has become so popular that it has become one of the main means of communication.

• 1978: The first SPAM is sent
• 1982 : 1.000 email addresses worldwide
• 1988 : The first commercial email software is released for the Mac, it is Microsoft Mail
• 1988 : 500,000 email addresses worldwide
• 1989 : CompuServe offers access to email at the same time as its Internet connections
• 1989: IBM releases Lotus Notes 1.0
• 1990: The first HTML emails are sent, allowing a richer formatting.
• 1992: Microsoft Outlook is released for the first time under MS-DOS
• 1992: 5 million email addresses worldwide
• 1993: AOL connects its proprietary email system to the Internet.
• 1993: First appearance of the word SPAM as an unsolicited message
• 1996: HoTMail, the first free webmail is launched
• 1996: 25 million email addresses worldwide
• 1997 : Yahoo! launches Yahoo! Mail
• 1997: Microsoft buys Hotmail for $400 million
• 1998: The word SPAM is added to the Oxford English Dictionary
• 1999: 400 million email addresses worldwide
• 2000 - 2001 : Launch of the main email marketing platforms
• 2003: In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer reveals his email address chunkylover53@aol.com
• 2003: George Bush signs the first American law legislating the commercial use of email addresses, it is the CAN-SPAM Act
• 2003: Microsoft introduces an anti-spam and anti-phishing filter in Outlook
• 2003: 625 million email addresses worldwide
• 2005: Creation of SPF, the first technology to verify the identity of an email sender.
• 2007: Google releases Gmail
• 2007: The Internet Engineering Task Force adopts the DKIM anti-phishing protocol
• 2007: 1 billion email addresses worldwide
• 2009 : Launch of the iPhone which makes access to email even easier
• 2009: 1.8 billion email addresses worldwide
• 2011: Associated Press Stylebook recommends the use of the word Email instead of E-mail
• 2011: 3.1 billion email addresses worldwide

Also, feel free to read thearticle on the history of email.

Sources:

• https://www.emarketinglicious.fr/webmarketing/evolution-de-l-email-en-une-image
• https://marketing-webmobile.fr/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/history-of-email.jpg
• https://www.inboxvision.com/blog/2012/04/the-evolution-of-email-marketing/
• https://www-01.ibm.com/software/marketing-solutions/offers/history-of-email-authentication.html
• https://www.smartinsights.com/email-marketing/email-communications-strategy/the-long-history-of-email/

Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mutt.png