Facebook COO Says 'Email Is Probably Going Away' (replaced by Facebook)

[onehandle]

At Nielsen's Consumer 360 conference on Tuesday, Sandberg said that only 11% of teens use email daily.

"If you want to know what people like us will do tomorrow," she told a crowded conference hall, "you look at what teenagers are doing today." She then predicted that email is "probably going away." "I can't imagine life without it," she added.

This is big news for businesses and online advertisers because Facebook may connect consumers and advertisers more easily (and directly) than email.

Sandberg cited one study which showed that people who receive product recommendations from their friends are 400% more likely to buy that product. On Facebook, this is encapsulated in the site's "like" feature. The study also revealed that friend-recommended products have 68% better product recognition and 200% greater memory of brand messaging.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/17/facebook-coo-email-is-pro_n_615816.html

FEAR FACEBOOK!

[chrisa]

1. Will never happen.

E-Mail is the formal form of communication now. However, I highly doubt Facebook is used for anything other than informal talking between friends. The idea of businesses using it for private communication is pretty ridiculous.

Also, I remember when people were (and still are) proclaiming that some new technology (like DVDs, or RedBox) will replace Movie Theatres, or stuff like that. It's always some overzealous corporate executive trumping up their product.

[lbrtbell]

20. Agreed

Anyone who values privacy in communication isn't going to post on Facebook. You send an e-mail. E-mail is used in business and in personal communication. Facebook is just a place where people go to show off how many friends they have, and ruin their own lives by making comments or posting pictures that offend their families, employers, etc.

[Hissyspit]

2. Well, a lot of teenagers aren't using email because they haven't entered college or the work world.

Obviously there are going to be changes, and the Facebook paradigm is not going away, but I find some fault in the logic.

[onehandle]

7. That was my first thought. And if Facebook is costing them simple email skills...

...what will happen when they hit college/work?

Facebook is a plague.

[SheilaT]

3. Is he nuts?

Somewhat fewer than every person in America, let alone every person in the world, is on Facebook. And I honestly don't think I'm the only person left in North America who is not on FB. I don't expect to go there. Ever.

Okay, so I'm not a teenager, but still. Kind of like I don't shop at WalMart, ever, I won't be on Facebook.

[JI7]

6. i'm not on it, and even if i was i wouldn't use it for things related to work

and other private and formal matters.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. That makes TWO of us

not on facebook either. I got a twitter account though...

[BrklynLiberal]

4. I don't think so.................

[tritsofme]

5. Perhaps at home, but Outlook and email in general will continue to dominate business communication.

But I can definitely see personal emails becoming less relevant.

[The_Commonist]

8. Not!

While it's true that the kids today communicate with each other primarily via Facebook (and text), once they go into the workplace, they will use email, like it or not. You can't communicate sensitive company info via Facebook.

[Cass]

9. Lol, not in my world, its not. nt

[City Lights]

10. Farcebook is sure full of itself.

It's highly overrated, IMO, and loaded with bugs. :thumbsdown:

[msongs]

11. kids are TEXTING instead of emailing...doh! nt

[Sherman A1]

12. One wonders just what color the sky is in his world

Sounds like wishful thinking on his part.

[davidinalameda]

13. I talk with my little sister more on facebook than i do on the phone

she lives in Washington state and her work schedule is crazy

I'll reply to one of her posts or post something on her wall

it's easier for us

[lbrtbell]

21. E-mail would accomplish the same thing

Plus, the two of you wouldn't be giving your private info to Facebook, where it will be re-sold to mailing lists and the like.

[davidinalameda]

24. I have yet to get any spam on the email account I use for FB

maybe it's just me

[petronius]

14. Facebook COO: "My god, I just shot the bitchinest heroin!"

It's a nice fantasy of hers, but the whole 'look at what teenagers are doing' sounds pretty hokey. There's probably a brazillion we did as teenagers, where "people like us" are definitely not following suit...

[Raster]

15. So what else does Ms. "vested interest" have to say?

Are there any other new concepts or websites that Mark Zuckerberg will be stealing developing?

[geckosfeet]

16. Yeah. Right.

Facebook is a colossal waste of time.

[Curmudgeoness]

18. Wait until all the "cool" pictures they posted on FB

stop them from getting jobs. Of course the CEO is predicting the end of email. Just hold your breath honey.

[SeattleGirl]

19. Sorry Facebook, you aren't going to scare me into joining. n/t

[Arkana]

22. Don't count on it, Mr. Facebook Doucheweasel.

[howaboutme]

23. How long has Facebook been around?

3 years? I haven't yet had a desire or an occasion to put my life history, my moods, and my personal life on the internet. Have you (open to anyone)? Is so what do you get out of it?

I believe it shows just how gullible the youth become to trendiness and the pied piper that our media dominated society has become. Yet many with social networking are older and more mature people. Independent thinking has become a lost art in the USA and Party politics is an example and has piggybacked on that type of thinking.

How about Twittering? I haven't yet found a reason to use it. Maybe I'm becoming a fogey and dinosaur even though I was always an early adopter of technology. We become our parents.

[last_texas_dem]

33. I first heard about it in '04

Back then, it was only available to college students and prided itself in the strength of its privacy settings. Oh, how things have changed! haha Now everyone and their grandmother is on there, and they seem to be making an effort to betray every promise they ever made regarding keeping private information private.

I was on there for about a year, but recently threw in the towel after their ever-changing policies regarding privacy settings pissed me off one too many times.

Twitter I actually do enjoy. It's a good way to follow news, communicate with a few close friends, and practice one's ability to craft quippy one-liners. haha Plus, unlike Facebook, they seem to be a pretty basic site with no aspirations of taking over the entire Internet (at least at this point!).

[Toucano]

25. Teenagers?

The segment of the population who flip and flop and flutter after every whimsical fad are now the oracle of our lives?

Actually, that might explain a lot.

I also read that teenagers are taking a lot of heroin these days. Does that mean we'll all be doing that in a few years?


Seriously, though, I already sense a growing backlash of boredom against facebook.

[HopeHoops]

26. Oh fucking bullshit. Facebook's so called "private messages" suck moose cock.

AOL thought THEY were going to replace e-mail once upon a time...

[Roon]

27. Once upon a time

AOL and Prodigy were the ONLY emails...so they had it once...

[HopeHoops]

29. Um, quite wrong. Compuserve pre-dates both and even IT was a latecomer.

In fact, the earliest "email" existed in the early 60's, before the "Internet" existed. ARPANET had an email system in the early 70's that did quite well at delivering messages between remote systems. And when they came out, Compuserve, AOL, and the pathetic excuse for a service called Prodigy were all closed systems. There was never a time when the services were even close to the "only" email systems. On top of that, none of them ever had anything close to the flexibility and capabilities of stand-alone e-mail clients.

Facebook's current excuse for a messaging system would have been antiquated in 1985.

[kenny blankenship]

28. Yeah, I really want to be more directly connected to advertisers!

[cwydro]

30. What nonsense.

Not your post specifically, just that statement by FB.

[lunatica]

31. Email is the most important part of my job

Not only for communication but to get the tons of the scanned pdf files with the paperwork to process my kind of work.

[jp11]

32. I'm fine with facebookers being targeted for more spam and crap than I get.

Go ahead chase them down, I'm sure they can use what facebookers have interests in to direct market better.

[last_texas_dem]

34. And I just abandoned ship there a couple of weeks ago...

It was starting to creep me the hell out.

That level of "communication" made me pine for the days of the rotary phone. And I'm only 26!

[underpants]

35. Compared to DU that site is close to un-navigatable

I guess I am so used to DU that all other sites must be compared to it.

First of all it is difficult to have anything close to a complete thought in 420 characters-so good story telling is out the window.
There is no back-and-forth on someone's post there- you have to address it to them (which takes up characters) and hope that they see it in the soup of replies.
and there are the viruses.....

[begin_within]

36. Why can't Facebook just go away.

[GreenStormCloud]

43. Because lots of people like it.

Sorry that other people like something that you don't. That's diversity for you, people being different from you.

[hunter]

37. I loathe email, it's primimitive and it will be replaced. But not by Facebook.

Watching my own kids, who'd rather not use email and pay little or no attention to [e-mail], I'm pretty sure the next text communication system is evolving on cell phones.

[JerseygirlCT]

38. I don't think he can be considered an unbiased expert on this issue

a little self-serving to make that claim, isn't it?

[JerseygirlCT]

39. Also - how many people get their FB updates or messages

via their email account?

[pipi_k]

40. Oh Poo!!! What a load of horse hockey

I'm on FaceBook but still use email a lot.

Not only to communicate with friends and family, but also for shopping purposes (so they can send invoices, confirmation of shipping, etc.)

I also prefer to communicate with various businesses via email because I can gather my thoughts better and think of what I want to say to them, as opposed to having to do it over the phone.

[realisticphish]

41. Facebook and Google want to rule the world

only Google is really capable of it, though. This is, of course, nonsense, but there's something else to address...

I use Facebook all the time. People can act high and mighty all they want about it, it's a fantastic social tool for keeping up with moving friends after/during college. How many times have I heard a middle aged person say, "I wonder what happened to Bill, I haven't seen him since high school." Well, I KNOW what happened to Bill. I still say hey to Bill now and then. I looked at pics of his wedding. You don't have to worry about changing mailing addresses or phone numbers, it's a social anchor.

Facebook can be EXTREMELY scummy sometimes. In fact, quite often. But for me, the benefits outweigh the risks. It's not like I post my home address or credit card numbers on there. For my generation, this is a vital social tool. So all you people who smugly adjust your monocle every time you hear the word "Facebook," just chill out for christ's sake

[GreenStormCloud]

42. No way.

Email and Facebook and cell-phone texting have different uses. For that matter, for some things I use old-fashioned postal mail, albiet rarely.