20 YEARS OF HOTMAIL, HOW HE WAS DETHRONED BY GMAIL

Twenty years ago Hotmail, one of the first web messaging services was born. It was created by Indian entrepreneur Sabeer Bhatia and American Jack Smith. At first, it offered 2MB of storage, something almost unthinkable for the time. Eighteen months later and he boasted about 9 million subscribers. Its success was such that Microsoft took out its portfolio and bought the company in December 1997 for $ 400 million. Thus was born the era of Microsoft Hotmail, a reign that lasted 16 years until Gmail dethrone in 2012.

Hotmail was one of the pioneers of the free web-based e-mail, and marked the first contact that many had with email. In fact, it was necessary to have a Hotmail account to use the popular chat of Windows Messenger, so the use of both has been associated for many Internet users.

In 2004, Google announced its own Gmail e-mail service, it offered more storage and was much more intuitive and fast to load all functions, while Hotmail looked like a showcase flooding users with innumerable "banners" that were distracting, Google offered a clean interface, with text ads and a much faster and more robust overall operation. customer churn was inevitable, but most importantly, the arrival of Gmail forced Microsoft to change its strategy. 

Gmail is now the absolute king of online email, with over 900 million active users; Outlook has 400 million users

2012 was the year that Google Gmail messaging outnumbered Hotmail users. Two months later, Microsoft confirmed that Hotmail will integrate Outlook, its new online platform. The transition took place throughout 2013 but unfortunately Microsoft has never been able to seduce users again. Gmail is now the absolute king of online email, with more than 900 million active users (75% of mobile use), while the last official number announced by Outlook is 400 million users.