• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• Business Line
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Mamuni Das

New Delhi , June 17

YAHOO!'S 100 megabytes of free e-mail launch before the Google's 1,000 MB free e-mail service launch has ensured that the shift of Yahoo!'s free e-mail subscribers is captured to a large extent. Yahoo! has pre-empted Google's move to capture subscribers on the issue of storage, point out experts.

Additionally, it also shows a trend reversal at least in the short run wherein at present Internet companies had started making people pay for additional storage space in e-mails.

The announcement comes a month after search rival Google said it would launch a free e-mail service called Gmail that offers 1Giga Byte or 1,000 MB of storage, considerably more space than free versions of Yahoo Mail and Microsoft's Hotmail.

"Yahoo's plan to provide free 100 MB storage may impact Gmail considerably. 100 MB storage space will be more than satisfactory for users who have been managing with 4-6 MB storage space till now," said the ICRA Ltd Manager (Research), Mr Soumya Ghosh.

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) India Country Manager, Mr Kapil Dev Singh, "There are basically different types of users. Yahoo! will be able to stop the migration of those users for whom storage space is a major constraint to Google's e-mail. Meanwhile, many users who have been using a certain e-mail address for long are not likely to shift."

However, Gmail with its 1,000 MB space will definitely have its novelty value and attract many users out of curiosity, adds Mr Singh.

Currently, Yahoo! is at an advantageous position, since it already has a huge subscriber base that will not migrate, he says. The privacy and security concerns about Gmail may prove beneficial to Yahoo!, he adds. Deleted mails from Gmail will stay in the Google server and can thus be retrieved.

Interestingly, just a day before Gmail formally announced its plans, Yahoo! had reported sent e-mails to some customers intending to gauge their interest in receiving 100MB of storage. Yahoo! had then maintained that the e-mail was just a consumer survey for its "loyal consumer base" and denied that it had any relation to the news of Gmail.

More Stories on : Internet | Strategy | E-Mail

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Dubai outsource zone from Internet City

Copyright © 2004, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line