The End of Email?

At last week’s Nielsen Consumer 360 conference, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg boldly asserted that email is probably on the way out. According to a recent article which appeared online on Fast Company, she remarked: “If you want to know what people like us will do tomorrow, you look at what teenagers are doing today.” Sandberg, recently ranked one of Fortune Magazine’s 50 Most Powerful Women, notes that only 11% of teenagers use email on a daily basis. Instead, the younger generation is turning to SMS and social media for communication.

Her statement sparked interest and got me thinking about a world without email. Working with Central Desktop, one of OpenView Venture Partner’s expansion stage portfolio companies, I spend a portion of my day communicating with management teams via email; email addresses which people are often reluctant to hand over. When speaking with different segments about Central Desktop’s web-based collaboration software, it is increasingly clear that email is preferred over phone, but that isn’t news to anyone. However, would the CEO of a national software company one day prefer that I text him my pitch?

Social media provides a whole new level of access and, in a privacy-seeking society, are we willing to share our identities? Are social networks and SMS really are on their way to replacing traditional email in the workplace? A Wall Street Journal article also seems to agree with Sandberg’s hypothesis. Instant messaging and Twitter don’t seem to be very professional, but who knows how they will evolve over the next few years. For all we know, our Facebook messages might soon be complete with signatures.