'Spamiversary': unwanted emails near 30

29 April 2008

Spam emails are set to reach their 30th birthday next week, in one of the web's less salubrious milestones.

The message widely considered to be the first unsolicited mass email was mailed on 3 May 1978 by an employee of then computer giant Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).

Sent to a group of 393 users of Arpanet, the forerunner of the internet, the message invited recipients to "COME SEE THE 2020 AND HEAR ABOUT THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY AT THE TWO PRODUCT PRESENTATIONS WE WILL BE GIVING IN CALIFORNIA THIS MONTH".

Although its originator, marketer Gary Thuerk, expected some negative reaction, he was apparently surprised by the strength of feeling it provoked among the community.

Today, around 120 billion spam emails are sent each day, a multi-billion dollar industry that places a large burden on mail servers and other parts of the internet's infrastructure. It is estimated that spam makes up 80-90% of all email traffic.

Meanwhile, Apple's iTunes music store has marked a more positive anniversary: its fifth birthday. Opened to Mac users on 28 April 2003 with a 20,000 track library, the site now claims 50 million users and an astonishing six million track catalogue, with sales to date of more than four billion songs.

Recent In-Stat figures suggest that by 2012, digital music sales will account for 40% of all music purchased worldwide. Wired points out that, if iTunes preserves its current 70% market share of sales, it will account for 28% of all worldwide music sales by then.

Category: e-commerce, Online marketing, Social media