Email Service Providers by Size

Compilation of publicly available statistics on the size of various free and for fee email services and service providers.

1. Hotmail.com - 110,000,000 users
Data as of: October 2002
Type of service: Free/Fee
Source of data: Microsoft press center information
2. Yahoo.com - 101,000,000 users*
Data as of: Early 2003
Type of service: Free/Fee
Source of data: Yahoo! Investor Relations report.
* figure represents all active registered Yahoo! users - number specifically using the Mail service component of Yahoo! is not disclosed
3. NetEase.com - 53,000,000 users
Data as of: Unspecified
Type of service: Free/Fee
Source of data: NetEase.com product info page
= 4. Sina.com - 20,000,000 users
Data as of: Unspecified
Type of service: Free/Fee
Source of data: Sina.com corporate information
= 4. Rediffmail.com - 20,000,000 users
Data as of: 8 July 2003
Type of service: Free
Source of data: Rediff.com press release
5. Libero.it - 10,000,000 users
Data as of: April 2002
Type of service: Free
Source of data: CriticalPath case study
6. Web.de - 7,800,000 users
Data as of: December 2001
Type of service: Free
Source of data: Web.de corporate press background info
= 7. Mail.com - 3,000,000 users
Data as of: January 2002
Type of service: Free/Fee
Source of data: PCWorld.com news article
= 7. Maktoob.com - 3,000,000 users
Data as of: January 2003
Type of service: Free
Source of data: Maktoob.com press release
8. Cool Goose - 855,600 users
Data as of: 27 January 2004
Type of service: Free
Source of data: Live user count
9. MailandNews.com - 500,000 users
Data as of: February 2002
Type of service: Free
Source of data: Shanje.com (parent company) press release
10. Inbox.lv - 491,286 users
Data as of: 27 January 2004
Type of service: Free
Source of data: Front page of Inbox.lv site
=11. Fastmail.fm - 300,000 users
Data as of: 26 January 2004
Type of service: Free/fee
Source of data: Smh.com.au News article
=11. Webmail.co.za - 300,000 users
Data as of: Unspecified
Type of service: Free
Source of data: Easyinfo.co.za (parent company) About page
12. MyRealBox.com - 255,217 users
Data as of: 27 January 2004
Type of service: Free
Source of data: Front page of MRB site
13. Mac.com / iTools - 180,000 users
Data as of: October 2002
Type of service: Fee
Source of data: ZDNet news article
14. MailPuppy.com - 91,600 users
Data as of: August 2003
Type of service: Free
Source of data: Front page of MailPuppy site
15. Fusemail.com - 33,479 users
Data as of: 27 January 2004
Type of service: Free
Source of data: Front page of Fusemail site

BACKGROUND NOTES

A) The data on this page is compiled from publicly available information and has not been audited or independently verified in any way.

B) User counts are VERY slippery. One provider may count only active users, another may count anyone who ever signed up for an email address, even if they only logged in once five years ago! Also, the definition of "active" can vary wildly, so the above figures are best treated as order-of-magnitude estimates