Digital Post shuts down
Australia Post rival Digital Post has shut up shop after just over one year in full operation, today informing customers the service will be closed down. Digital Post was the first company to the digital mail market in Australia, ahead of Australia Post which had to be pulled off line due to technical issues later in October 2012.
The company's general manager, Simon Hughes, informed customers the business had made the "very difficult" decision to close Digital Post, due to a lack of customers. The company said it had almost 1000 businesses using the service to distribute communications, and 12,000 registered consumer level users at last count.
The company said that despite corporate senders being initially very excited by the concept, many seem to be focusing their digital strategies on the development of their own customer communication platforms and therefore the number of companies committed to delivering mail through the channel wasn’t sufficient to make it a sustainable service.
Australia Post responded to the news by claiming its digital mailbox was going from strength to strength. Adding it has some of Australia’s largest companies including Telstra, AMP and Westpac, and with more than 40 providers coming on-board over the next months. But Australia Post’s requirement that concession stamp holders sign up and the recent to all Australians to get on board make it look a bit desperate.
