IDC Predicts More Spam than Human Email in 2007

Although email spam is nothing new, IDC predicts that the volume of automated spam email will eclipse the amount of human-generated email within the year 2007.

According to the report by IDC, both personal users and businesses have been moving from email to instant messaging and VOIP services as email has become more unwieldy ue to the amount of spam flooding inboxes. Additionally, spam has become often more subtle than before, avoiding filters and making it into inboxes in ever greater proportions. IDC projects that spam will increase to 40 billion message in 2007, nearly seven messages for every person on the planet. These numbers do not take into account the automated messages sent by businesses and charities to opt-in mailing lists; these make up yet a third category of email, even though many users may also be considered spammy by many users. "Spam volumes are growing faster than expected due to the success of image-based spam in bypassing antispam filters and of email sender identity spoofing in getting higher response rates," said Mark Levitt, the VP in charge of IDC's Collaborative Computing and Enterprise Workplace research. "Instant messaging, joined by free and low-cost VoIP calling, will result in slower e-mail growth, especially among teens and young adults." IDC suggests that in 2007, companies should focus on email as only a single facet of their overall communications structure. With the onset of ever greater amounst of spam, corporate communications should be expanded to include Instant Messaging and VOIP technologies as well.