This document discusses computer-mediated communication (CMC) and the evolution and major players of internet-based communication tools like email and instant messaging. It provides an overview of how email and IM services work, both historically and currently. It also analyzes trends in email usage and the shift to mobile-based communication. Major services like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and Skype are examined in terms of features and revenue models. Porter's five forces model is applied to the industry. The future of the space is predicted to involve ongoing integration across platforms and services to meet changing user needs and behaviors.

1. Ravinder Pal Singh Dhillon (09BM8039) Ambrish Mani tiwari(09BM8006)

2. What is Computer Mediated Communication? Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is defined as any communicative transaction that occurs through the use of two or more networked computers. CMC can be divided into synchronous and asynchronous modes: Instant messaging ( IM ) is a form of real-time direct text-based communication between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. Electronic mail , commonly called email , e-mail or e.mail , is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients.

3. The Evolution of Internet Based Communication Evolution of eMail Host-based mail systems: The original email systems allowed communication only between users who logged into the same host or "mainframe". Homogeneous email networks: Many early peer-to-peer email networking only worked among computers running the same OS or program. Attempts at interoperability: ARPANET, the forerunner of today's Internet, defined the first protocols for dissimilar computers to exchange email Evolution of Instant Messaging Instant messaging predates the Internet, first appearing on multi-user operating systems like CTSS and Multics in the 1960’s As networks developed, the protocols spread with the networks. Some of these used a peer-to-peer protocol (e.g. talk, ntalk and ytalk), while others required peers to connect to a server (see talker and IRC). Common Protocall : Microsoft and Yahoo! , by the 3rd quarter of 2006 incorporated SIP/SIMPLE followed, in December 2005, by the AOL and Google strategic partnership deal after which Google Talk users were able to communicate with AIM and ICQ users provided they had an AIM account IM From a Webpage : Gmail has instant messaging capacity in webpage itself, which can be used in a web browser without the need to download and install the IM client. Later Yahoo and Hotmail also implemented it.

4. Some Fun Facts about eMail If email was a country , its 1.8 billion users would make it the largest in the world. Bigger than China, bigger than the populations of the USA and European Union combined. 298 billion emails are sent each day. That’s one email every 0.00000034 seconds. In the time it takes you to read this sentence, some 23 million emails entered cyberspace. Every second , the world’s email users produce messages equivalent in size to over 18,000 copies of the Complete Works of Shakespeare (assuming a 30KB average email size). 16.4 billion : the number of direct marketing dollars forecast to go on email in the US in 2009. $623 billion : the return from that investment if you use DMA figures on email marketing ROI. That’s four times the market value of Microsoft. 181: the number of marketing emails it would take to produce enough revenue to buy one share in Microsoft. 83,689,738,832,367 : the number of marketing emails it would take to produce enough revenue to pay the US National Debt.

5. Who are the Major Players

6. How do they Earn? Charges a premium for additional storage space over the 7.5Gb free storage Makes use of automated Email scanning and uses it to push relevant advertisements to your inbox display Adwords and AdSense generate revenue through pageviews and per click/redirect. Allows making calls with the use of prepaid credit which is the primary source of revenue Skype also uses advertising on the clients, thus generating a secondary revenue stream Has tieups with telecomm players and manufacturers

7. How do they Earn? (Continued…) Has premium accounts that can be purchased for 19.99$ Uses advertisments as the main source of revenue. PC to Phone calling is availible with the use of prepaid credit, and also generates revenue for Yahoo! Offers Premium webmail services for 20$ with more storage and no advertisments. Integration with Bing! and advertising allows for revenue It is estimated that they generate about 1$ per user per year.

8. How do they Earn? (Continued…) Besides these, Outlook is a premium service, which is in use by most corporate, and they charge organizations for their setup depending on the user bas that would use their service. There are other clients for chat, which allow users to log into various IM services from one location. These earn revenues primarily from advertisements on their websites/clients or through the installation of other applications/toolbars or through data gathering services which can chart usage patterns.

9. Google’s services as an example: Gmail is a free, advertising-supported webmail, POP3, and IMAP service provided by Google. It was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though still in beta status at that time. The service was upgraded from beta status on July 7, 2009, along with the rest of the Google Apps suite. As of November 2010, it had 193.3 million users monthly. Spam filter Gmail's spam filtering features a community-driven system: when any user marks an email as spam, this provides information to help the system identify similar future messages for all Gmail users. Users may tune the system to allow mail marked as spam to be handled in particular ways.

10. Google’s services as an example(cont…) Gmail Mobile is a version of Google's Gmail email service. Gmail Mobile was released on December 16, 2005 It is a free service, developed to provide access to Gmail from mobile devices such as cell phones, or smartphones. Gmail Mobile offers many of the features as Gmail delivered effectively to smaller, mobile screens. Users have the ability to compose, read, archive, reply, forward, mark unread, add a star, add custom labels or trash email messages. On September 22, 2009 Google brought Push Mail support to its Gmail service using Google Sync for iPhone and iPod Touch platforms. On April 3, 2010, Google announced a new two-pane layout designed specifically for the iPad. It is delivered automatically to Gmail website users who are signed in using the device's Safari browser.

11. Google’s services as an example(cont…) Google Buzz On February 9, 2010, Google commenced their new service, Google Buzz, which integrates with Gmail allowing users to share links and media, as well as status updates. Buzz was launched with an automatic opt-in, causing an uproar in the Gmail community which led Google to quickly undo its initial moves. Google Voice in Gmail chat In August 2010, Google implemented and released an integrated telephone service in Gmail's Google Chat interface. The service allows people to make free calls from their Gmail account to U.S. and Canada, at least through the end of 2010. The Gmail service currently provides more than 7 GB of free storage. Users can rent additional storage (shared between Picasa Web Albums, Google Docs and Gmail) from 20 GB (US$5/year) to 16 TB (US$4096/year).

12. Digsby as an Example of an IM provider: It supports IM services such as AOL Instant Messenger, Microsoft's .NET Messenger Service, Yahoo! Messenger, Facebook Chat, MySpace IM, Google Talk and LiveJournal's IM. e-mail notifications via POP, IMAP and webmail like AOL, Yahoo! and Hotmail - including the ability to mark messages as read, as spam or delete them from the client itself. supports alerts and newsfeeds from MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Additional features customizable skins for the client and IM windows aggregated web search from within the client via multiple sites composing emails from IM windows combining friends from multiple clients into one contact listing Limitations IRC support is missing Privacy concerns

13. Trends Analysis: Source: comScore

14. Trends Analysis: Source: comScore

15. Trends in eMail usage: Source: comScore

16. Trends in eMail:

17. Trends in IM Chat:

18. Shift in eMail usage patterns: The Key Points: While Yahoo still is at the top, Gmail has managed to usurp Hotmail/Livemail as the number two free email provider Apples email service on the iPhone has not seen the phenomenal growth which was expected from it, due to the tight integration of yahoo mail and gmail in the mobile webspace

19. Shift in eMail usage patterns in India:

20. Porter Five force analysis Threat of new Entry No technology protections. Experience not a prerequisite. Also the trainings are readily available. Existing applications can include communication services. Threat of Substitution Communication is no longer a stand alone service for a user. The entry of Mobiles and integration all around has had a major effect on trends. Buyer Power Peer group has high influence on the user. Low switching cost. Going for advanced technology and bundle of services at the same place. Rapidly increasing suppliers to lure the existing and prospective buyers.

21. Porter Five force analysis Supplier Power Easy availability of IT professionals. Easy availability of the required infrastructure. Can be started and carried on from any place. Location of the offices has little impact. Competitive Rivalry Source: comScore

22. Opportunities : Rapidly increasing customer base. Customer inclination for changes. Reducing cost of the required IT infrastructure. Increasing importance of being connected for personal and professional aspirations. Innovation in services can increase the market share rapidly. Integration with various other web-applications. Threats: Low customer loyalty. State of the art technology is essential. Need for constant integration and innovation, or will be rendered obsolete. Privacy concerns.

23. The Future:

24. THANK YOU