Facebook launched a next-generation online messaging service on Monday that includes facebook.com e-mail addresses in a move seen as a shot across the bow of Google Inc, Yahoo Inc and Microsoft Corp.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg unveiled what he called a “convergent” modern messaging system that “handles messages seamlessly across all the ways you want to communicate,” in a single inbox.
The messaging service blends online chat, text messages and other real-time conversation tools with traditional e-mail, which Zuckerberg said had lost favor for being too slow for young Internet users.
“It is true that people will be able to have facebook.com e-mail addresses, but this is not e-mail,” Zuckerberg said at an event in downtown San Francisco. “It handles e-mail.”
Zuckerberg dismissed reports referring to the messaging system as a “Gmail killer” aimed at the heart of free Web-based e-mail services from Google and similar services from Yahoo and Microsoft.
“We don’t expect anyone to wake up tomorrow and say ‘I’m going to shut down my Yahoo Mail or Gmail account,’” Zuckerberg said.
However, he added: “Maybe one day six months, a year, two years out people will start to say this is how the future should work.”
“Maybe e-mail won’t be as important a part as it was before and we can push people toward real-time conversations,” Zuckerberg said.
The new messaging system, referred to inside the Palo Alto, California-based firm as “Titan,” will be slowly rolled out in coming months to users.
About 350 million of Facebook’s more than 500 million members already use its messaging service, with more than 4 billion digital missives sent daily, according to Zuckerberg.
With such a large user base, a free personalized facebook.com e-mail service is seen as a challenge to the established e-mail giants — Microsoft’s Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Google’s Gmail.
Hotmail currently has the most users, 361.7 million as of September, according to online tracking firm comScore, followed by Yahoo with 273.1 million and Gmail with 193.3 million.
Microsoft, which has a small stake in Facebook, is integrating its popular Office software into the social network’s messaging system so people will be able to share Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents as attachments.
Facebook’s new messaging service comes amid sparring with Google over data sharing. Google this month blocked Facebook from importing Gmail contact information over the social network’s refusal to share data about its users.
“Facebook says this isn’t a ‘Gmail killer,’ but this is neither completely accurate nor completely wrong,” Forrester analyst Augie Ray said. “Anything that makes communication easier and pulls attention away from Gmail is a ‘Gmail killer.’”
“It will increase the amount of time people spend on Facebook,” said Lou Kerner of Wedbush Securities. “That’s really what a lot of this battle between Facebook and Google is about.”
“All these Web companies want to have people spend more time with them so they can serve them more ads,” he said. “So if people are using Gmail less and Facebook messages more that’s to the detriment of Google.”
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such
SENSOR BUSINESS: The Taiwanese company said that a public tender offer would begin on May 7 through its wholly owned subsidiary Yageo Electronics Japan Yageo Corp (國巨), one of the world’s top three suppliers of passive components, yesterday said it is to launch a tender offer to fully acquire Japan’s Shibaura Electronics Co for up to ¥65.57 billion (US$429.37 million), with an aim to expand its sensor business. The tender offer would be a crucial step for the company to expand its sensor business, Yageo said. Shibaura Electronics is the world’s largest supplier of thermistors, with a market share of 13 percent, research conducted in 2022 by the Japanese firm showed. If a deal goes ahead, it would be the second acquisition of a sensor business since