Google launched Gmail only four years ago, and it is now the fourth most popular e-mail service on the Web after Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, and Windows Live Hotmail. In 2008, it saw some serious growth in the U.S. Google doesn’t break out the number of Gmail users, but comScore estimates unique monthly visitors. According to the latest stats, the number of people visiting Gmail grew 43 percent last year to 29.6 million. In contrast, the much more massive Yahoo Mail grew 11 percent to 91.9 million uniques. AOL Mail finished in second place for the year with 46.6 million uniques (plus another 7.2 million visitors to AIM Mail), while Hotmail actually declined 5 percent to 43.5 million.
How can Gmail keep growing at such a fast rate, when the other email services seem to be stagnating? Maybe it’s because Gmail is evolving at a faster rate.
If you look at any of the major Web portals by subdomain, the email service always comes out near the top in terms of driving traffic (for instance, see Yahoo’s breakdown). Google never defined itself as a portal, but as it added more and more services beyond basic search, creating deeper connection swith consumers by offering them indispensable apps for free was always part of its strategy. And as much as we like to complain about it, email remains on of the most indispensable communication tools out there.
If you look at the chart below, you can get a sense of how Gmail gained against AOl Mail and Hotmail during 2008 (I left out Yahoo Mail because it is so much larger than the others that it skews the chart). At this rate, Gmail could overtake AOL and Hotmail within the next two years. Yahoo Mail won’t be as easy to catch. Although Yahoo Mail grew only 11 percent last year, it still added more visitors (9.4 million) than Gmail (8.8 million).
I am surprised that Hotmail is above gmail. After switching to gmail I don’t use any other free email. I wish they had folders, but it is much better than the rest.
Yea but you need to consider alot of things, like the fact that Hotmail is powered by Microsoft who has internet messenger that is preinstalled on all the win-based machines, and if you want to use it you need to create a Hotmail account.
I am sure that 70% + of all the users on the internet has used msn messenger at least once…
You don’t have to create a hotmail account to use Windows Live Messenger. I use it but I don’t have a hotmail account.
up until like a year ago or two you had to have a hotmail. now you dont
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gmail’s ajax is robust that if a request to server fails, it tries again by itself.
Though i always hated the heap of text it offers, im cooled little down by their offer of customisable themes.
Yeah… it seems that at least some Hotmail users must also have Gmail accounts, but still juggle between the two sites instead of using their @hotmail.com address directly in Gmail (which is possible).
Tom, folders?… come on… Let’s see some Labels & Filters action!
Don’t forget the Google labs to define your own colours for labels!
I know that for some it’s difficult to get rid of old habits like using folders but truly the MAJOR advantage of gmail is its search functionality. Who needs folders (and even labels to some extent) when you can search any email by sender, recipient, subject, date or just plain text. Believe me it works great even when you get 200 emails a day.
Between the huge storage space, file share system, calendar and Blackberry client (synced calendar), you can run your business using Gmail for sure. And it’s free of course.
I also have yahoo mail and have experimented with Hotmail/live and each pales in comparison to Gmail.
Tom Blue – try using “labels,” they serve essentially the same purpose as folders, and then you can get real crazy and use “filters” to automatically label incoming email, i.e. “work,” “friends,” “bills,” etc.
They have folders… they are just called labels. But they are exactly the same thing, plus bonus
gmail has tags which are better than folders
For all hardcore Gmail users, this doesn’t come as surprising news. We have all known about how superior Gmail is when it comes to handling mass amounts of email compared to Hotmail, Yahoo!, etc.
Just hearing about people still using Hotmail makes me sick to my stomach. Gmail’s incredibly quick interface is what keeps users coming back!
If you can manage to find me a gmail domain name without numbers or symbols in it and purely my name like rkrishnakumar@gmail.com I would come back. Unfortunately I feel someone has already reserved these addresses with their 100 or so invites
Do what I do — reserve your own domain name and get your gmail via Google Apps
Google Apps is awesome if you have a domain – for a lot more than just email! So… when does GMail come out of beta, huh? Seems a bit dodgy that Google is charging for Google Apps Premier but still labeling their email as Beta.
Check out http://www.tunome.com There’s hundreds of Domains to choose from. It’s free, uses AOL webmail.
Not sure what planet you are on but a sub 2-3 second startup / load time for Hotmail and instant compose / read etc is hardly slow and clunky?
Where do you people get this information from? Other mythical blogs I guess.
And Hotmail does offer POP3 – http://windowsl....live.com/Blog/
If Yahoo and Hotmail will not provide some unique services – their days are counted, because now Google is much more faster and flexible with new mail features.
The funny thing is that every time I open Hotmail it looks more like Gmail.
When I was over seas in Africa I noticed that everyone had a yahoo account. Not sure why it was so much more popular than Gmail but it seemed strange.
Yahoo has the unlimited storage feature going for it, which could give it some staying power. Some people also prefer the outlook-esque look that Yahoo’s beta mail also provides. I’m a huge fan of gmails grouped emails though!
The “unlimited” storage is just a marketing ploy. Just like “unlimited” broadband, there is a hidden maximum, and if you are above that, they will sanction you.
So why not come out and say what that maximum is?
Yahoo has always been sneaky that way, and also holds your email hostage: You cannot migrate away from yahoo mail unless you pony up for the paid account, or use hacks to get IMAP support through scraping their site.
Ur right, there is a hidden max. I just got so used to Yahoo over the years that I keep it along with my other accts. Maybe I should cut the cord!
The Outlook feeling definitely does it for me…
I actually switched from gmail to hotmail with the introduction of the @live.com domain. Definitely check gmail still an it’s likely rise is it’s nice set of features and acceptance of technologies like IMAP and POP3 which hotmail is yet to do. Things like iPhone having gmail out of the box also likely buried hotmail in the dumps
Couldn’t agree with you more. i didnt like GMAIL or YAHOO due to spam; but getting frustated by being forced to check hotmail via the web on my phone. if they dont allow connections to hotmail via email clients soon, they will loose a lot of customers.
Wow, you are behind the times.
Hotmail does now offer POP3 – http://windowsl...ve.com/Blog/cns!2F7EB29B42641D59!32413.entry
Yahoo is still very popular in other countries, i know alot of friends from other countries that just don’t feel like switching. They had the email account for so long that switching would be a hassle. I prefer gmail for its slick interface and integrated chat.
Gmail Team needs to build & evangelize a “switch easily from yahoomail / hotmail to gmail” feature and the growth will be bigger
They do what they can, but Yahoo in particular holds your emails hostage: You cannot get IMAP for the free version, so migrating your emails means you have to get the paid version.
Just like so many other things out of Yahoo, their “Yahoo Open” strategy is pure marketing fluff.
http://develope...cing_the_1.html
LOL @ Yahoo hater. you can download zimbra and do the same if you wish. But, seems gmail has put curtains of ignorance on your ibrain.
yahoo only adds features as a defensive mechanism against a competitor. if it weren’t for gmail, yahoo mail users would still have a 25MB mailbox quota.
yahoo will add imap only when users start migrating to gmail in droves.
I’ve tried to convince my girlfriend to switch from Y! Mail to Gmail but now she’s convinced… we need to convince Yahoo Mail!… as they don’t provide an easy way out!
It is not possible to forward your mail for example (a standard feature from Gmail for years) and they prohibit any kind of mail transition… What are they afraid of any way…?
Well I was able to figure out a way around it. Setup your Yahoo! Mail in Outlook using YPOP (http://ypopsemail.com/). Setup your Gmail account in Outlook using their free SMTP/POP. And then just drag-drop your old email to your Gmail account.
That’s good business. “Open” is important, but “we’ll make it easy for you to switch away” is an act of suicide. Raising switching costs is a critical element of any good business’s strategy, especially since most of Yahoo’s (and for that matter, Google’s) businesses have no switching costs at all.
Google should consider buying AOL’s mail business- its combined userbase would rival Yahoo Mail. They could use Gmail technology on AOL and AIM mail. There is a fair amount of customers marketing on behalf of gmail once they use it and see its advantages. People often use the invite feature from within Gmail. Having a larger base would also expand this kind of customer-driven growth.
I have switched my main email box from GMail to Yahoo mail because of its multi-tab interface and much better looking. Still use gmail occasionally though.
I wonder what % of gmail users are interfacing with their email using POP3/IMAP and are never even hitting the website in a browser? that might skew #s a bit for comscore too.
at the end of the day gmail rules because it’s fast, has great search, offers a simple UI that doesn’t get in the way, offers ample and growing storage needs, and constantly continues to improve its product offering in ways that *matter*. put simply, it’s a delight to use.
that it happens to integrate well with other gServices like gCal is icing on the cake.
How is the number of unique monthly visitors related to the number of accounts?
43% Wow! and email is not a “new idea”. Goes to say never worry about doing something that has already been done, just do it better.
I think that we will find that this data is not accurate. I don’t know how comscore assess “uniques” but if every gmail user was accessing a WEBMAIL service from TWO devices, wouldn’t that be TWO unique users? I don’t think CS is tracking ACTUAL users, but IP address uniques.
So, I’ve been using gmail for about 4+ years now, and I probably access it weekly from about 10 different devices. Six computers, two cell phones, two iphones, and then there are additional applications like MAILPLANE which may send a unique even thought it is from the same computer.
I would think that gmail users, might be more tech savvy and connected, thereby accessing the gmail services from more than one device. Since Yahoo and others CHARGE for alternative accesses of similar kind (no free pop, imap, etc) then THEIR users might be more locked into the same computer/s for access, not blossoming the access channels.
Ok, so there may be a lot of doubles for gmail if this is true, but there also are a lot of people who access gmail via pop3, and those don’t get counted at all.
I too access gmail from a lot of devices, but almost all are pop3, I use just one computer for going to the actual website.
AOL actually offers IMAP and POP3 for free as well. But in any case, Comscore numbers are to be taken with a grain of salt.
I am sure the launch of the android phone gphone on tmobile helped. You MUST HAVE a gmail account to initially set up the phone.
not likely, were talking about figures already in the tens of millions here. How many Gphones were sold to people who didnt have gmail addresses previously? Not a lot.
The world would be a better place without hotmail.
Any poor AOL users looking who are ready to leave and want to export your address book, this might help: “How to Export Your AOL Address Book”: http://chrisco....index.php?s=aol
@Chrisco: I understand you hate AOL pretty badly and put quite some times and efforts into your rant. But you – as is everybody else – are invited to talk to us (and find out why some of your assumptions around our strategy are actually wrong): http://mailblog.aol.com
Also worth noting that for a majority of those 4-years of its existence – gmail was by invite only. Hell, mine still says its in “beta.”
It’s not just Gmail, but the other Google apps that are burying the competitors. I love Google calendar which has become my one calendar via Lightning/Thunderbird and the iPhone. I love that it sends me text alert reminders of appt.s
Once Google adds a decent task manager, the others will most likely be toast.
Parden me? I don’t think there are any products that are “burying” their competitors. It was only just this year that Mapquest lost the top spot, and it is a dead heat now between yhoo, good and msft. Reader is FINALLY up there, but nothing else works. No news, no finance, no igoogle, not documents, nothing else is doing anything compared to their peers.
I have a hotmail account as some dorks I worked with only had MSN Messenger for IM. I’ve never used Hotmail and when I did I only had spam in it. What was odd was that I never published my email address.
Instead of innovating, Microsoft is being anti-competitive and are too stupid to realize they are shooting themselves in the foot. Has anyone noticed that they have removed compatibility of Hotmail within Chrome. I’m a big Chrome fan and stopped using Explorer almost on day 1 after its beta launch. Now MSFT has removed my ability to reply, forward, write, or delete emails in Hotmail, not to mention manage emails and folders. Don’t their marketing people realize it will just make me want to stop using Hotmail altogether?!
So In only four years Gmail has captured last place?
In terms of actual users Yahoo grew slightly more than Gmail (9.1 million vs 8.9)
Im just sayin..
Why do people draw conclusions from opaque statistics from the likes on Comscore? Making conclusions on numbers pulled from a hat is a bit silly.
Google implemented some kind of “mandatory Google ID” for AdSense last year. I think a lot of people created a GMail account just to comply with that.
That artificially inflated some of GMail’s growth for this year…
No. Check your basic facts before posting. Having a Google account is different from having a Gmail account.
Actually, you should check your facts. While you are right that both are different things, creating a google account automatically creates a corresponding gmail account.
I have to admit that since I’ve switched to Gmail, all the rest seems pointless. I do agree with the first comment that I wish that they had folders since labeling can get a little old, but overall the spam filter is worth its weight in very expensive gold. I never get spam anymore. I love it!
Misty Faucheux
Social Media/Community Relations Manager, Viscape.com
Yahoo has the largest no of users, because it has by far the best UI. It is visually appealing, and user-friendly, with tabs, multi-tasking (don’t have to close one function to use another), online chat and of course, unlimited storage.
I have Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail e-mail accounts, and so can compare. Hotmail is by far the worst. No multi-tasking, no tabs, and the shortest period before they delete your account for not logging in. Only advantage is its link to the Live services- free document storage, etc.
Gmail looks like a high school science project compared to Yahoo (everything Google does has this unpolished, amateurish look that I really hate). The only advantage is it has mail forwarding and lets you use multiple e-mail addresses with one account. But it’s certainly better than Hotmail.
Google is SO much better in EVERYTHING that they do. The old ways of the web are dieing slowly, including Yahoo and to a lesser degree Microsoft.
really? u seem to know everything and predict the future. so, when is the world going to end?
Four years ago? I was on gmail in 2003. Perhaps ‘05 was the official release year?
Yeah, I don’t think it was ‘03. I was an early beta tester and my oldest mails are ‘04
My Gmail account allows me to save so much time… First it blocks 99.99% of spam… 2nd, as a heavy Google Services user (Analytics, Adwords, Adsense, Webmaster Tools, Docs, Groups, etc…) it is so much easier to manage these accounts with this single email address… The Sign Up process is so much faster as well… And what is really cool is that I manage every other email address from my Gmail account and can answer from these addresses with Gmail… The Tags feature allows me to differentiate general Gmail messages from the other ones… Gmail is simply the best option out there, period !
I can tell you why hotmail is dying: its spam filter is useless, utterly and completely useless. Yahoo on the other hand seems to have quite a good spam filter that learns when you flag a message as spam.
Haven’t had much spam to my Google email yet, it’s too new, but (knowing Google’s track record) I’d expect it to do better than Hotmail.
Gee that’s funny I barely get 2 SPAM emails every 2-3 days now, if that so please cut the childish uninformed FUD.
I have 5000 spam mails in my Google spam folder. I have 1 spam mail in my Live junk mail folder.
Google’s spam filter is better at filtering emails once they get to the user’s inbox, but Live’s spam filter beats the shit out of Google at preventing those emails from even reaching the inbox.
Not to brag, but I’m going to claim .0001% of Gmail’s growth – in the past year I switched over (1), I put my family on it (4), and I encouraged some of my friends to make the switch (10+) – and I’m still spreading the word.
What would be more interesting would be to compare the services globally because Hotmail does far better in other parts of the globe and according to Microsoft Windows Live has nearly half a billion users worldwide.
Amazing growth in the last four years! The people have spoken Gmail is better! My experiences with Hotmail were not good at all. Gmail is by far the best way to organize your inbox using Tags and filters:)
Did you even realize they don’t have yahoo in that freaking graph? Its waaay up there beyond the sneaky chart.
What is amazing is that yhoo still generates 500M a year on paid email. 25M users at 20-35$ a year. Not to mention the money they generate MONTHLY from the Zimbra users – which too are growing.
That they haven’t been able to better integrate zimbra features into their mail offerings – is of course, NO surprise to me.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t Yahoo and Hotmail make it difficult to migrate to other email addresses? I think you have to pay Yahoo $20 to get the POP or other export options. And I don’t think Hotmail provides any export-your-Hotmail ability to any non-Microsoft services or products?
Hi Matt Cutts from Google!
Sure, POP/IMAP on gmail is great. But.
But when GOOG lets user export and delete the rest of their personal data such search history, pages viewed with toolbar, etc. then we can talk about “open”. Users have no idea what their GOOG overlords know about them.
Oh, and where’s the API to Google’s search, similar to Yahoo’s BOSS? Oh that’s not open EITHER? I thought you were implying that GOOG was open and YHOO was closed.
Thanks for playing, but keep dropping by with the authentically biased comments!
Hotmail/Live and Gmail are not even comparable.
In terms of quality Yahoo and Gmail in my view are comparable, but why in the world one should choose the one who’s charging pop3 access 19.99USD per year while the other one offers pop/imap for free?
Email market shares breakdown is all about legacy, if these three services were out together in the same times Yahoo should have changed business model and Hotmail should be dead in one week.
By the way, have you ever noticed how absurdly Hotmail is wasting his first 100 vertical pixels in the UI header? Placing this non-sense image which is not even an ad:
http://b.ads1.m...00000301318.jpg
Microsoft UI designers, please take a look at the first 100 pixels in the Gmail UI design and you’ll maybe understand why you are losing shares against Google.
I just wish I could get back the old gmail address I had. they said they’d recycle them…..then didn’t.
I use yahoo, gmail and hotmail. I use hotmail for my junk mail (signing up for accounts etc.).
I strongly prefer Yahoo’s color scheme and layout, it’s much more inviting – gmail feels cold, sterile and crowded, utilitarian. For that reason i also enjoy Yahoo’s messenger – it has the most appealing and adorable emoticons.
However, lately someone has gotten a hold of my yahoo account and I am getting 10 spam mails for every 1 legitimate one. I label them as spam, and have been doing so for the past 6 months, but the spam keeps increasing.
For this reason I will be forced to switch to gmail soon.
34234tf fdf
http://asddfghasdwe.com/
Can you drag 1 or more email messages from the inbo onto a label in gmail? And what is the real reason to provide a “Message text garbled?” feature?
Personally, I find webmail a real pain in the arse.
when ever i get an email in russian, i click the message text garbled and i can read it.
Gmail is the best of all….no doubt about it and no need to have any discussion regarding it…the only point here is how other services can improve their standards..
if so why didn’t the entire world become gmail fans like you are. perhaps they have brains and see bigger picture.
Yahoo1 mail i the better
Yahoo! mail is the better
Gmail gonna take them all very soon, Live design is nice – tho I don’t like the facts content getting deleted after a short time of inactive.
Perhaps they have been helped by the problems Hotmail have been having, with speed and interface. Hotmail has frustrated me time and time again. Then again, Gmail isn’t perfect, but it’s the better of the two.
What speed and interface problems?
I get sub 2-3 second load / startup and instant new message compose, message read and everything else in a browser.
I have no issue with design or UI and never had problems with speed.
What frustrations, be specific or just keep spreading the FUD.
It’s just a matter of time now before Gmail would take the numero uno position. With innovative add-ons coming every now and then , there is every reason for Gmail to grow at this rate.
I haven’t seen a new innovative feature from Yahoo in recent past. Yahoo is living on its first movers advantage.
EVERY single time I try to login to my (very very very) old Hotmail account, in order to check if any old friend is still confused with my contact details, ittakes more than 30 seconds for the crappy page to load…
There is NO comparison whatsoever between Gmail and Hotmail…
http://the-anti...y.blogspot.com/
Sorry, I can’t for the life of me find this mythical ‘G’ spot.
Hotmail / Windows Live Mail / Outlook 2007 does it for me! lol
To the idiot alex – 4:18pm, loads for me in 2-3 seconds everytime so cut the FUD child.
I love gmail, and I’m surprised, too that is live mail more popular than gmail?? ha.