UK Windows Live Hotmail Product Manager Jo Wickremasinghe (god, I hope I got that right!) presented some of Microsoft's latest developments regarding the addressing of spam and suggested what we as email marketing professionals can do ensure deliverability for our clients to Windows Live Hotmail (WLH) inboxes.
In short, Jo's seminar was by far and away the most interesting (especially given the 60% market share WLH has!) so I have broken it down into smaller chunks.
Windows Live Hotmail:
- Hotmail is now 10 years old and has 11.9 million customers making it the largest web-based email service in the world.
- It accounts for 58% of all web-based email activity.
- WLH handles 5billion messages DAILY of which >80% comes form unknown sources (not necessarily spam, but otherwise unidentified sources like COMPANY YOU who may not have authenticated yourself with WLH).
- WLH handles 300 million active email inboxes
- >1million new IP's identified daily
- <10% these IP's are from recognised sources
WLH is strictly focusing on protecting the consumer - be aware. If you are not meeting their requirements, you WILL end up in the "bin".
Industry Lowlights:
- Spam + Fishing attacks are up 40% since 2006 (of which 80% is from bots).
- PDF, mp3 and image-based spam increased 30% since 2006.
- "Pump+Dump" stock-market spam actually affecting share prices and providing indirect financial rewards for spammer.
- Spammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated (and are great direct marketers).
- Big brands and governments are being hit hard.
Industry Highlights:
- Online travel activity has increased by 21% since 2006.
- Banking, despite phishing attacks, has enjoyed 27% growth.
- Increasing collaboration between ESP's and legal organisations seeing more spammer being prosecuted. There have been 400+ legal actions since 2003.
- Reported online fraud has actually reduced by 10.6% compared to 2006.
- The reporting of fraudulent emails has also fallen by 50% since 2006 as a result of improved spam filters.
More later...