It seems that everywhere you turn people are singing the praises of social media, and with Twitter’s estimated 300 million users and Facebook closing in rapidly on one billion, it’s no wonder. I mean, these platforms are huge, and getting bigger and bigger every day.

But what about other older technologies, like email? Does the rise of social media mean the final nail in the coffin for this reliable but decidedly unglamorous messaging medium?

No. Far from it, in fact. Yes, spam is a continuing (and expensive) problem, especially for corporations. And your common or garden teenager (certainly if they’re anything like my son) will probably tell you that they have about as much use for email as that long-abandoned Bebo profile.

However, not only is email not going away anytime soon, but it absolutely dwarfs Facebook and Twitter, plus LinkedIn, Google+, MySpace and every other social network… combined.

For businesses of all sizes, email is as relevant today as it ever was. In fact, it’s indispensable, as any office whose provider has gone offline for 24 hours will gladly tell you.

This infographic from Visible Gains takes a closer look at how big and important email is today, and where it could be heading in the future.

Key takeaways:

• There are almost 3 billion active email accounts around the world, sending 188 billion messages every single day
• The average email account receives 64.8 emails each day
• 107 trillion emails were sent in 2010, which was up 19 percent from 2009

(Source: Visible Gains.)