Google announced today via its official blog that Gmail now has more than 425 million active users around the world – a gargantuan feat considering its humble beginnings as a beta release in April 2004. Google’s announcement today means that Gmail is now the word’s largest email service, blowing past Microsoft’s Hotmail for the first time. Yahoo Mail used to be the king of email services. But both Hotmail and Gmail got Yahoo Mail users deviating the course.
I can still remember using Yahoo Mail first prior to moving to both Hotmail and Gmail. Last year in July, during its 15th-year anniversary, Microsoft announced that its Hotmail users have grown to 360 million active users, becoming the then world’s largest email service. Meanwhile, web analytics company comScore reportedly said that Google “has way less unique visitors and still gives the edge to Hotmail and Yahoo”.
Venturebeat notes comScore’s latest numbers from May where Hotmail has over 325 million unique visitors, while Gmail only has 289 million users. Andrew Lipsman, Vice President of comScore told the publication that their data was based on global unique visitors, which means that some users are left out, particularly those who access their email via mobile devices and Internet cafes.