Facebook Messages is a land grab

Let's be clear. Facebook Messages will not change the face of the internet as we know it. Nor will it replace email at any time in the near future, despite Mark Zuckerberg's belief that email is no longer the way many people choose to communicate online.

There is a good deal of truth in Zuckerberg's argument that net users, and especially younger net users, are moving away from email in favour of chat or instant messaging, and social networking sites. Announcing Messages in California earlier this week, Facebook's founder readily conceded that email would continue to be important for some time to come; he even described Google's Gmail as a "great product".

The numbers, though, tell their own story. Facebook has more than 550 million users worldwide. Microsoft has around 360 million users for its email services, and Google, around 190 million. Yahoo! Still has more than a quarter of a billion people using its mail services.

None of these companies charge users for access to their mainstream, webmail products, although Google, in particular, is upselling more sophisticated services to enterprises. Rather, the value of these very large groups of people is in their value as a target for advertising and marketing.

Viewed in that light, Messages, and the @facebook.com email address the company will offer its users, represents a significant online landgrab. The more time people spend on Facebook and Messages can only add to the appeal the more valuable Facebook's internet real estate becomes commercially.