CAWI · n=1,004 · representative · October 2025
INTERNET COMMUNICATION STUDY

How Germany communicates digitally

Internet Communication Study 2025/26:
Email, AI and cloud in Germany

Since 2009, Convios conducts an annual survey on how Germany communicates digitally: email, cloud services and AI. 16 waves. Over 16,000 respondents.Commissioned by WEB.DE and GMX (United Internet). Current wave: October 2025. Cited in Heise, W&V, Statista, BNN, Springer academic press and over 100 other publications.

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52.1%
WEB.DE + GMX: Market leadersWEB.DE 26.4% + GMX 25.7%. Press reference: GMX Newsroom and WEB.DE Newsroom, 20 November 2025. Source: P8, Wave 16.
46.3%
use ChatGPTIn 2024, the figure was 36.9%. Gemini, Copilot and Galaxy AI all grow double-digit. Source: P24, Wave 16.
68.4%
Privacy concerns about US corporations26.9% with clear concerns, 41.5% partly. 57.5% would switch to German providers after data breaches (P36, n=466). Source: P35, Wave 16.
13.8%
Gmail: Market share decliningGmail fell from 17.5% (2024) to 13.8% (2025). Source: P8, Wave 15 vs. 16.
COMMISSIONED BY
WEB.DE & GMX (United Internet)
CONDUCTED BY
Convios GmbH
METHOD
CAWI (Computer Assisted Web Interviewing)
SINCE
2009 · 16 waves
AI USAGE IN GERMANY

Who uses which AI services?

First time with three-year trend. Broken down by provider, age group, gender and education.The AI questions were first included in 2023 (n=258). A fixed component since 2024. Cross-tabs by age, gender and education are not available in any other publicly accessible German study in this combination.

AI usage by age group
P24, Wave 16, n=1.004. Multiple responses.
87.5% of 16- to 19-year-olds use ChatGPT. Among those over 60: 26.6%. Gemini strongest at 30–39 (31.5%). Perplexity popular among under-30s (12.5–13.6%).
34,3%

use AI for product search17.8% find AI more helpful than search engines, 16.5% prefer traditional search. 30.3% can imagine using AI for this.

P26, Wave 16

53,8%

reject autonomous AI shopping17.7% can imagine it, 21.8% only for everyday products. Majority (53.8%) too uncertain. Building trust is key.

P27, Wave 16

35,0%

would use AI email management50.3% are too uncertain.

P28, Wave 16

EMAIL MARKET GERMANY

WEB.DE and GMX gain share. Gmail declines.Data from P8(2), filtered series. Question: 'Which email service do you use most frequently?' Primary address. Time series since 2009, unique in Germany. Press reference: GMX Newsroom, 20 November 2025.

Most used email address, 2009 to 2025. WEB.DE rises from 23.0% to 26.4%. Gmail falls from 17.5% to 13.8%. P8, Wave 1 to Wave 16.

66%

primarily use email on smartphone2010: 4.7%. 2015: 29.4%. 2018: 59%. 2022: 65.9%. P23, Wave 16. Provider app (46.4%) beats pre-installed app (37.9%).

P23, Wave 16

50,1%

stay out of habitP12, Wave 16. Second-strongest reason after ease of use (69.5%). Then: good address (55.1%), speed (45.5%), reliability (40.3%).

P12, Wave 16

82,2%

don't pay for emailP19, Wave 16. 17.8% pay for email. Monetization runs via value-added services (cloud, office, security).

P19, Wave 16

DIGITAL COMMUNICATION

Email beats chatbots and messengersP42, Wave 16. Three quarters of Germans prefer email for business communication.

77.7% prefer email for communication with businesses. 82.8% want order confirmations by email. Chatbots: 16.8%.

Preferred channel to businesses P42, Wave 16
Super app: Interest by ageP43, Wave 16. A super app bundles email, chat, payments, government appointments and banking in a single smartphone application. The concept originates from Asia (WeChat, Grab). In Germany: 39.8% interested (30–39 year olds: 53.6%), 41.4% against. Desired features: email (48%), doctor appointments (30.3%), payments (28.9%), banking (29.6%), tickets (25.7%).P43, Wave 16
16–1941.7%
20–2952.4%
30–3953.6%
40–4942.8%
50–5932%
60+23.4%
DATA PRIVACY & CLOUD

Trust, concerns, willingness to switchConcerns about US providers, willingness to switch after data breaches, and the criteria that decide the choice of cloud.

Concerns about US corporationsP35, Wave 16
Yes26.9%
Partly41.5%
No22.4%
Don't know9.2%
Cloud: US vs. DEP30, Wave 16. Over 80% of the cloud market with US providers. German providers below 16%. Selection criterion no. 1: simplicity (45.1%), then cross-device (34.7%), then hacker protection (33.4%).P30, Wave 16
US DE
28,3%

reject any data usageP22, Wave 16. 28.3% 'under no circumstances'. 23.5% if privacy policies are followed. 19.8% for auto-login convenience.

P22, Wave 16

57,5%

would switch after data breachesP36, Wave 16, n=466. 11.6% clearly yes, 45.9% maybe.

P36, Wave 16

8,1%

want AI in the cloudP33, Wave 16. Lowest value of all cloud criteria.

P33, Wave 16

SAMPLE STRUCTURE

Regional distribution (Nielsen)Quota by Nielsen regions ensures regional proportionality. Nielsen regions are standard in German market research (GfK, Kantar, Ipsos).

22%
NRW
15.8%
North
15.1%
Bavaria
14%
Hesse / RLP / Saar
12.8%
Baden-W.
8.1%
East
8.1%
Thuringia / Saxony
4.1%
Berlin
P5, Wave 16. n=1,004. Men 48.7%, women 51.3%.
16 YEARS OF SURVEY HISTORY

From the first wave in 2009 to the AI survey 2025/26Conducted annually since 2009 on behalf of WEB.DE and GMX. Suspended once in 2016. Over 16,000 respondents cumulated.

2009
First wave. GMX 23.5%, WEB.DE 23.0%. Gmail at 3.0%.
2013
NSA scandal. Privacy concerns rise. GMX + WEB.DE at 52.4%.
2015
Mobile email doubles to 29.4%. Volume DE: 537 billion.
2020
Covid. 71.6% prefer email for B2C. Cloud usage rises.
2023
First AI survey. ChatGPT 54.3%. Cloud overtakes USB stick.
2025
WEB.DE and GMX gain share. Over 52% market share. First AI special analysis with three-year trend.
2026
Email beats chatbots and messengers. 78% prefer email for business communication.
Press release →
AI special analysis since 2023, paused once in 2016.
POSITIONING

Germany's only email market share time seriesStatista references the Convios/WEB.DE data as the primary source for email market shares in Germany.

ARD/ZDF, Bitkom, D21 and Postbank cover adjacent fields. None provides email market shares as a time series.

Study
Email
Cloud
Privacy
AI
Since
Convios / WEB.DE & GMXTHIS STUDY
Only email market share time series in Germany
2009
ARD/ZDF-Onlinestudie
Media usage, no provider data
1997
Bitkom KI-Report
Enterprise focus (600 companies)
2017
D21-Digital-Index
Broad digital indexing, no email
2013
Postbank Digitalstudie
Banking/shopping focus
2015
16

Waves since 2009. Longest time series on internet communication in Germany.

16.000+

Respondents cumulated. Each wave n≈1,000, representative.

4

Dimensions: email, cloud, data privacy, AIEmail, cloud, data privacy and AI (since 2023). No other single German study combines these four dimensions on a recurring basis.

METHODOLOGY
POPULATION
German internet users aged 16 and above. Representative quota sample by age, gender and Nielsen region.
SURVEY METHOD
CAWI. Online panel. Approx. 40 questions, 12 minutes. October 2025.In the CAWI method respondents fill in the questionnaire in the browser. That covers internet users only, which is the right population for a study on internet communication.
SAMPLE
n=1,004 (Wave 16). Cumulated: over 16,000. Commissioned by: 1&1 Mail & Media GmbH.
PRESS AND CITATIONS
2012Heise OnlineiCloud unter den meistbenutzten Cloud-Diensten
2015iBusinessDeutsche bevorzugen GMX und WEB.DE
2016W&VDas sind die meistgenutzten E-Mail-Dienste
2018PresseportalSprachassistenten: Herausforderung für Datenschutz
2020PresseportalE-Mail bevorzugter Kanal für B2C-Kommunikation
2021StatistaHeimische Anbieter dominieren E-Mail-Markt
2022Marketing-Börse52% nutzen primär GMX und WEB.DE
2023Stadt-BremerhavenCloud überholt erstmals USB-Stick
2024BNNDeutsche nutzen KI bislang nur zum Zeitvertreib
2025GMX NewsroomWEB.DE und GMX legen zu, Gmail verliert
2026GMX NewsroomE-Mail schlägt Chatbots und Messenger
100+ publications since 2009. GMX Newsroom, Heise, W&V, Statista, Presseportal, BNN, it-daily.net, Stadt-Bremerhaven, iBusiness, Marketing-Börse, Melaschuk-Medien.
CITATION AND USAGE
Quotations from the published results are free to use with attribution: "Internet Communication Study, Convios GmbH commissioned by 1&1 Mail & Media GmbH". Raw data and the full table volumes are not public. Licensing and custom analyses on request.

Press coverage

Where the study series is cited

The study series has been published since 2009 on behalf of WEB.DE and GMX. Until January 2026 Convios operated as Convios Consulting GmbH; older reports use that name.

FULL RESULTS

46 tables. 16 waves. All cross-tabs.

Breakdowns by age, gender, education, income, Nielsen region and email provider.

Key findings as PDF. For the full study we'll schedule a call. No spam.

46 data tables
Full cross-tabs
16 waves
Time series since 2009
Demographic splits
Age, gender, region, education
AI special analysis
Providers, tasks, shopping

Questions about the study?

Dr. Oliver Gausmann, Convios GmbH. Press inquiries, licensing, custom analyses. Advisory on AI strategy, regulatory compliance and software delivery.

Discuss the value levergausmann@convios.com
All Data & InsightsAI Strategy Advisory
Convios GmbH · Landsberg am Lech · Internet Communication Study · Since 2009