Gmail is perhaps the most widely used web mail service on the planet. That’s what most people think, but that was actually not true until today, if a report by ComScore is to be believed. While Gmail is a very popular web-mail service, for long it has trailed Microsoft’s Hotmail service, which has been active since the mid-90’s.Recently, Google claimed that Gmail had 425 million monthly active users, but according to ComScore’s report the numbers are quite different at 288 million. Hotmail in comparison now trails Gmail at around 286 million with Yahoo further behind at 281.7 million users.
One has to take in to account the fact that Hotmail lost a chunk of its user base to Outlook.com, new web mail service launched by Microsoft. So while Gmail, has finally taken the lead, it has partially been due to Outlook.com’s user cannibalization.
Gmail is currently battle with Yahoo for the top spot in India, while Hotmail dominates in Brazil and Mexico. Additionally, Yahoo is still the most used web mail service in the US.
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