Yahoo! Mail 3 times bigger than GMail

Duncan Riley reports at TechCrunch that Yahoo! Mail is still the more widely used email service than GMail this Christmas.

A chart below (taken from TC) shows a ComScore report of unique visitors on Yahoo! Mail versus GMail from November 2006 to November 2007.

Yahoo! GMail

Rough estimate Yahoo! getting close to 250 Million unique visitors each month for the entire year. However, the trend looks like it’s mostly a flat line without much increase in the figures for the last 12 months. GMail, on the other hand, grew from around 60 Million unique visitors to just over 90 Million in the last year.

Yahoo Mail’s growth rate of 3.21% pales in comparison to GMail’s 56.3%. However, Duncan’s conclusion that at this growth rate GMail will overtake Yahoo! Mail by 2010 is just plain wrong and misleading.

According to the figures, Yahoo! Mail is 3 times the size of GMail. GMail is fairly new in this arena, having been launched in April 2004 while Yahoo! Mail has been in existence for over 10 years now. Of course, due to the small userbase of GMail, its growth rate will be significantly higher than that of the old-timer. I think everyone has had a Yahoo! mail at one time or another.

The 3.21% growth in Yahoo! Mail translates to about 8 million more while with GMail, it’s close to 30 Million during the same period. Here’s my alternate and more believable extrapolation of their growth:

Let’s assume a consistent 30M for GMail and 8M for Yahoo! Mail in the next several years, the formula would look like:

YM (pop) + ( X (years) x 8M) = GM (pop) + ( X (years) x 30M)

250M + X(8) = 90M + X(30)

140M = 22X

X = 6.4 years

Assuming that both growth rates are flat (which is also doubtful), it will take until 2014 for GMail to overtake Yahoo! Mail. In 2010 and 2014, we’ll revisit this figures and see which guesstimates came the closest.

Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

16 Comments

jhay says:

17 years ago

Gmail still has a lot to learn, like integration. Especially for Gmail Apps users. Still, it’s Gmail for me till the end.
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sylv3rblade says:

17 years ago

Y!Mail’s unlimited storage is too tempting. I just wish we get something similar to the Gmail Drive application on it.
- Reply
Ordnacin says:

17 years ago

Not really sure if GMail will ever overtake Yahoo Mail. Gmail’s interface/structure is just too different from the standard folder structure that casual users are familiar with. What I’d like to know if when will Yahoo mail ever allow POP mail for free…

@slv3rblade I think a plugin similar to GSpace might be grounds for suspension of your Yahoo account. I do think it’s in their TOS that you can’t use Yahoo Mail as a storage bin…
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Macnerdzcare says:

17 years ago

the best pa rin yahoo mail.. pero mas ok spam protection ng gmail.
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sylv3rblade says:

17 years ago

@Ordnacin
aww sayang naman
- Reply
silvertooth26 says:

17 years ago

Yahoo Mail pros (beta version):
> Integrated Yahoo Messenger, no need to install Yahoo messenger app
> Free texting to Globe/Smart subscribers

cons:
> spam mails A LOT!
> spam chats abound, oh yes. :)

Gmail pros:
> Can integrate AIM contacts on AOL instant messenger
> can integrate up to 7 email addresses
> great spam protection
> less cluttered interface
> can chat with other gmail users on your contact list w/ no need for 3rd party app

Cons:
> I just wish I can create folders to store some of my emails (maybe it has this capability and I haven’t just discovered it yet :)

I both have a yahoo and gmail account but if they’d make me choose what to keep, I’ll say…. GMAIL. :)
Happy New Year to all!
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Andrew says:

17 years ago

Looking at those numbers, Gmail can match Yahoo Mail’s user base in five years or so. Let’s talk about users instead of unique visitors here. If we take a chunk out of each email service’s growth rate as new signups (against old users checking emails), Yahoo! is clearly losing ground. Out of its 8% growth, how much of it was caused by new signups? While Gmail enjoys a higher growth of 30%, I assume that most of it came from new signups because not everyone has it yet.
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adamike says:

17 years ago

adamike1 at gmail.com
http://adamike.blogspot.com

gmail is king!!!
yahoo mail is dead!!!

Although yahoo has a lot more users they also have a lot more dsat users

While

gmail has more more vsat users

Why?

in the old days if you don’t use your yahooo mail within a month your yahoo mail closes down…
that’s the biggest thing for me – because I don’t get to open my email regularly…

GMAIL doesn’t have that kind of a problem

http://adamike.blogspot.com
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utube yotube yutube says:

17 years ago

ewan ko pero tingin ko gmail really kicked yahoo , base na lang sa performance. Gmail kasi mabilis unlike yahoo and kung may time kayu try nyo.. and tingnan nyo ung difference.

dati i have yahoo mail and i used to it, pero ngayun kaya may yahoo lang ako kasi for yahoo messenger.
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Chris Jones says:

15 years ago

I honestly appreciate this, Thanks!
- Reply
ajgc says:

15 years ago

You can manage your emails in gmail. Activate gmail labs and you’ll be surprised with a lot of the features you can use.
- Reply
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