Google announced today that its Gmail service has 425 million monthly active users. That means it has blown past Hotmail for the first time, becoming the largest email service in the world.
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.
For many years, Microsoft’s Hotmail has been the reigning champ among global email services. In July, 2011 Hotmail announced on its 15-year anniversary that it had 360 million unique users per month. Yahoo Mail used to be the clear No. 1, but it has seen customers defect to both Hotmail and Gmail. And finally Google’s much-younger service (Gmail’s invite-only beta release was in 2004) has caught up to its older rivals.
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.
