Gmail remains most-used e-mail provider - GMX catches up

For the second time, e-mail provider GMX has published facts about the e-mail market in German-speaking Switzerland. In addition to market shares, data was also collected on the e-mail usage of Swiss online users: Respondents are using the electronic mailbox more and more intensively, and e-mail communication with companies in the context of purchasing processes is also gaining in importance. These are the findings of a survey conducted by the MindTake research institute on behalf of United Internet Media.

Gmail in first place

In the ranking of mainly privately used e-mail providers, Gmail continues to lead with a market share of 30.7 percent. Second place goes to GMX.ch with 17.3 percent, Bluewin moves up to third place with a market share of 17 percent. In fourth place is Microsoft (15.3 %), followed by its own server/domain email offering (3.4 %) and iCloud (3.4 %). Sunrise (3.2 %) and Yahoo (2.5 %) bring up the rear.

Emails in communication with companies

In the past year, e-mails have gained in importance above all in communication with companies as part of the purchasing process (25.5 %). This is followed by communication with public authorities (20.5 %) and training or further education institutions (19.6 %). The role of e-mail in the dialog between companies and customers is also reflected in the use of newsletters. 9 out of 10 respondents receive weekly newsletters on their private e-mail account - one fifth of all e-mail users receive more than 20 of these regular mailings each week. Overall, 66.3 percent of those who receive newsletters also read them at least once a week.

41.4 percent of newsletter readers have already made a purchase directly from a newsletter. The main reason for direct purchases are offers or exclusive discounts (60.2 %), followed by time-limited offers (26.3 %) and a simplified ordering process via the newsletter (18.9 %).

Internet activities of the Swiss

Overall, e-mail use is also strong: Surfing the Internet (93.8 %) and reading or writing e-mails (91.5 %) are the two most frequent Internet activities of e-mail users in German-speaking Switzerland. This is followed by visiting social networks (72.8 %).

Reading and writing e-mails plays a major role for every age group: while 80 percent of 14- to 19-year-olds and 82.3 percent of 20- to 29-year-olds read or write e-mails at least daily, the figure is already 91.9 percent for 30- to 39-year-olds and as high as 93.5 percent for 40- to 49-year-olds. The proportion of those who use e-mail at least daily is even higher: 96.7 percent of those aged 50 to 59 and 98.8 percent of those aged 60 to 69. More than half of 14- to 19-year-olds (51.2 %) say they have read more e-mail in the past year. Among 20- to 29-year-olds, this figure is 39.1 percent, and among 30- to 39-year-olds, 28.5 percent read more e-mails.