Facebook: The check is NOT in the (e)mail

Email is either a dinosaur, or Facebook didn't know how to work it into its business plan.

Either way, the social media giant is dropping it as a service to its 1.2 billion users three years after launching it (yes, 1.2 billion, a seventh of the planet's population if those are all unique individuals).

“We’re making this change because most people haven’t been using their Facebook email address, and we can focus on improving our mobile messaging experience for everyone,” a Facebook spokesperson told the website Re/code.

Facebook operates by providing "free" services that attract users and advertisers. Users have flocked to the system even though they have to first give away valuable personal data to Facebook for free. 

The company business plan includes profiting by selling advertising space. Earnings soared to $523 million in the fourth quarter  - up from $64 million in the year-earlier period - on sales of $2.6 billion, CNN reported recently.

But Facebook has decided that email is not a service that excites the masses and gets advertisers writing checks, at least not within the Facebook habitat. It will reroute email from people's "@facebook.com" address to the email address they provided when they signed up in the first place.

The decision underscores the company's strategy to now seek growth in the mobile market, highlighted by the company's staggering $19 billion acquisition last week of "chat app" company WhatsApp, a Mountain View, Calif. group with all of 55 employees.

Overheard among the chattering today: You've got no mail!