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Email marketers undecided on email postage scheme

February 11, 2004 |

E-mail marketers reacted cautiously to recent proposals for a digital postage system that would require bulk senders to pay a fee.

E-mail marketers reacted cautiously to recent proposals for a digital postage system that would require bulk senders to pay a fee, questioning whether such a system would work and how much it would cost.
The e-mail postage idea gained traction last month when Microsoft chairman Bill Gates told luminaries at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the solution to the spam problem required adding a cost to the sending of e-mail. He sketched out a “sender-pays” system for bulk e-mail.

The idea was buttressed with the announced launch of Goodmail, a Mountain View, CA, startup that proposes requiring bulk e-mailers to first identify themselves and then buy a digital postage stamp for their mailings. The money generated would be split between Goodmail and Internet service providers handling the mail.

“There’s been a lot of discussion about bringing economics to e-mail,” said Richard Gingras, Goodmail’s chief executive. “Our view is what’s required is a very elegant solution that shifts the cost from the ISPs and consumers to the bulk mailers.”

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