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By - Darren Straight

MSN Hotmail celebrates its 10th Birthday

World’s most popular email service reaches double figures

MSN Hotmail, the UK’s first free web-based e-mail service, is celebrating its ten year anniversary this month.  Founded by entrepreneurs Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, MSN Hotmail officially launched in November 1996 and in the last ten years it has become one of the major corner stones of the internet, dramatically revolutionising our communication habits and enhancing our relationships with one another.

Over the next few months, Hotmail will be evolving and reaching its next major milestone with the launch of Windows Live Mail, the next generation of Hotmail. The introduction of Windows Live Mail will provide internet users with a more advanced email service which will be faster, simpler, safer and offer greater connection, further developing the way we communicate.

During its ten year rein MSN Hotmail has exploded in popularity with over 270 million active accounts worldwide and more than 8.8 million users in the UK.

Since launch, it has been instrumental in reuniting long lost friends and family members, fostering romances, communicating important news such as births, engagements and new job offers and helping people keep in touch around the world.

Hotmail Birthday Facts

  • In 1996, 56,041 people signed up for the first Hotmail accounts, roughly the size of Taunton in  Somerset 
  • Almost half (43%) of PC owners in the UK have a Hotmail account
  • 1 billion emails are delivered to  Hotmail inboxes daily that’s over 11,000 emails per second
  • 80 million emails are sent by Hotmail users daily, 20 times more than the number of flowers delivered by Interflora in the UK each year
  • On average, Hotmail users keep  137 emails in their inbox at any one time, 15 times more than the average number of SMS messages we have stored in our mobile phones
  • Hotmail is used in nearly every country in the World and is available in 17 languages
  • Over one fifth of the UK population has made friends via MSN Hotmail,

The year that was…
Communication methods have changed considerably over the last 10 years. In 1996, just 24% of the UK population owned a computer, compared to 62% today, while only 6% of UK households had internet access, compared to 58% of UK households today.

1996 was not only the year that MSN Hotmail launched and significantly transformed our communication habits, it  was also the year the world was introduced to ‘girl power’ with the launch of the Spice Girls’ debut single ‘Wannabe’, which reached number one in the UK single charts. In the same year, Damon Hill was crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year and Cambridge won the Oxford and Cambridge boat race for the third consecutive year.

Commenting on Hotmail’s 10th birthday, Stuart Anderson, MSN Hotmail Marketing Manager, says: The growth of Hotmail over the last 10 years has been phenomenal, starting with our first sign-up back in 1996 to now hosting over 270 million accounts globally.  Our email offering has seen many changes over the years as the internet has developed and our communication needs have advanced.  The future of email is certainly bright and our plans for Windows Live Mail will see a whole new era of webmail over the next decade.

Update: check out http://www.msnpasstheparcel.com

3 thoughts on “MSN Hotmail celebrates its 10th Birthday

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Pat June 27, 2010 at 4:58 pm

I can’t get into my hotmail email. Somehow when they were having problem mine got messed up. It said, “I have to have permission from an adult and when you click I am an adult then it says you have to give them a credit card number.” I have had this account for a long time. I am an adult but I am not giving my credit card number. I am unemployed and I have sent out many application with that email on it.

I would appreciate any help you can give me. Also, it said to go to microsoft sites and services and I did but there is no one to email to about the problem. My new email p.cox02004@hotmail.com. The old on is pcox02004@hotmail.com. It says to change the birthdate but I can’t get in to change it.

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