• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, November 30, 2017

It happens about once a month -- a firm called Transparency Market Research issues a press release, promising to reveal big findings about the email business.

The release itself contains just enough to tidbits for a reporter to want more. We inquired once, and were promptly hounded by email to buy the report.

We’re not into checkbook journalism, but if we were, it wouldn’t be for this. The pitch doesn’t even explain the methodology. That said, what does the latest release -- out this week -- say about the size of the worldwide email market?

First, it claims that the email business stands at $4.51 billion in U.S. currency, and that it will hit $22.16 billion by the end of 2025. 

That’s not too impressive — Jeff Bezos has more than that in his bank account, and so does Michael Bloomberg.

But if you buy these figures, they represent a compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Somehow we feel we’ve read all this before. Are they merely trying to repackage a 2015 report?

What really interests us is the analysis of where the growth will be. This company states that the Asia Pacific is the global leader, at least in terms of growth, with an estimated CAGR of 22.80%. 

Our own continent of North America is headed for a slowdown, partly due to regulatory laws like CAN-SPAM and the much tougher CASL in Canada.

Hmnn. Didn’t they attribute the slowdown to the fact that Internet usage is already so widespread in the U.S. that growth is bound to drag a little?

But here’s a bigger question: Just how do they define the email market? Does it include consumer sales, or only marketing services?

Apparently it’s the latter. “Software and services are the main components of email marketing,” the company states.

It adds that software will retain its leading position, “thanks to the increasing adoption of white label software, third-party standard, and web-based application.” And it predicts that “the third-party standard software is likely to emerge as the most preferred component of email marketing in the next few years.”

This research outfit then lists a passel of firms that are active in the software market. They include: Alchemy Worx Ltd., Adestra Ltd., GetResponse, VerticalResponse Inc., dotmailer Ltd., Forfront Ltd., BlueHornet Inc., Constant Contact Inc., BlueTie Inc., Drip Inc., Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp., The Rocket Science Group LLC, iContact Corp, Zoho Corporation Pvt. Ltd., Salesforce Inc., Responsys Inc., Epsilon, Natexo Group, and Campaign Monitor.

Now you know. No need to buy the report.