Ebusiness feeds off spam

Spam may be unpopular but it seems to work, according to US internet advertising company DoubleClick.

More than 82 per cent of internet users surveyed by the firm said they had bought online at least once after receiving an email ad, compared with 61 per cent last year. Some 37 per cent made impulse buys, up from 20 per cent last year.

But DoubleClick, a tenth of whose business is email-based, warned vendors not to overuse the tactic saying that the annoyance of too much unsolicited email couldn't be measured but had a real economic impact.

Businesses too, will not be happy. Research from Message Labs claims that one in three UK firms have problems with spam, that 28 per cent of all emails were useless and that spam cost businesses an average of £47,000 per 100 employees per year.

Gartner recently reported that just over a third of email received in the workplace is unwanted.