Facebook Rumored to Launch E-mail Platform

Facebook is not about to sit back and enjoy its success in the global market; the company is determined to extend its dominance into other areas. According to a recent Business Insider report, the company will be announcing a secret product on Monday: a new e-mail system.

This is an interesting turn of events, given that so many young Internet users already rely on Facebook (News - Alert) as their messaging platform. Given that Facebook has become the “start-page” and communications hub for so many segments of the population, it only makes sense that Facebook would want to launch its own full-fledged e-mail product.

While this move could easily be seen as a direct attack on Google, a truly robust e-mail platform offered by Facebook would have devastating effects on not just Gmail, but also Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail and other successful systems.

Facebook and Google (News - Alert) have recently been at odds over data sharing rules. Google set out to disallow Facebook to grab data from Gmail, but Facebook found a loophole that can now bypass the new restriction.

The idea of Facebook e-mail is a significant threat for Yahoo and AOL (News - Alert) as both generate a significant volume of page views (and subsequently, ad impressions) from their e-mail users. As these users migrate to other platforms, they are likely to take their impressions with them – ouch.

AOL Mail has suffered a mass exodus of users in the last few years, which has contributed to the company’s financial collapse. Yahoo Mail has begun to see the same sort of erosion. To date, many of those fleeing have gone to Google, but could easily switch directions if Facebook delivers a strong platform.

In recent Facebook news, rumors suggest that the social networking giant may be the buyer behind the startup Instagram. Entrepreneur and superangel Ouriel Ohayon made the assumption on Twitter – which started the rumor mill.

The company has also been charged with trademark infringement. According to a Fox News report, the social networking giant is being sued by a parody site over trademark infringement. The name of the site: Lamebook.