Hotmail was the brainchild of Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia. It was founded in the year 1996 in Mountain View-based in California with its headquarters base in Sunnyvale. It has the distinction of being one of the first providers of webmail services. In the year 1997, Microsoft acquired it at nearly 400 million dollars. Over the years Hotmail has been rebranded several times, for instance, MSN Hotmail, Windows Live Hotmail and recently has been replaced in the year 2013 by Outlook.com. It faces completion in internet industry from several providers like the following-
- Gmail
- Yahoo mail
- Rediff mail
- Net
About Hotmail
- Type: Webmail service
- Industry: Internet
- Founded: July 4, 1996
- Founder: Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith
- Headquarters: Redmond, Washington, United States
- Area served: Worldwide
- Key people: Satya Nadella (Chairman) and Jared Spataro (CEO)
- Number of employees: 147,000+
Product mix in the Marketing Mix Of Hotmail :
Hotmail is a well-known app that deals in emails. It is an easy-to-use and customizable service provider that is recognised for its efficient dealings. It was first of its kind webmail service through the internet and had access to a user inbox from any place in the global arena.
In the beginning, Hotmail was run on Solaris and FreeBSD operating systems and by the year 2002 its infrastructure was based on UNIX services. Later it was tied with web authentication scheme, instant messaging, Microsoft account, MSN Spaces and MSN Messenger. Hotmail has been periodically upgrading its versions with advanced features, security and higher speed. In the year 2005, its new and better version titled Windows Live Hotmail was launched and in the year 2008 it was updated to provide increased storage space, improved speed and better usability features.
In the year 2009, Microsoft integrated Bing, search engine, with Hotmail via “Quick Add”. This helps in including search results arrived from Bing to Hotmail. The latest, modified and revamped version of Hotmail is now Outlook.com and existing users of Hotmail can easily upgrade to this version for free. The search option is of advanced category and has removed restrictions on the size of attachments providing immense relief to users who face serious difficulties while uploading any picture through their e-mail account. Outlook also offers its users an option to integrate Google, Facebook and Twitter contacts.
Place mix in the Marketing Mix Of Hotmail :
Hotmail is a webmail company that is ranked as a second-largest provider in the world with registered users at eight and a half million in December 1997 and in recent years to nearly three hundred and sixty-nine million. HTML is the language for creating web pages and hence the name Hotmail was a combination of the email along with HTML. Currently, it is available in thirty-six global languages with different windows and integrated live features.
The most common language used and preferred by its users is English. Hotmail has become an integral part of everyday life and its usability has been declared as indispensable. Microsoft has also allowed MSN members to gain access to emails via the web. Besides individual users, organisations and business houses can use Hotmail easily.
Price mix in the Marketing Mix Of Hotmail :
Hotmail is a trusted commercial app that is offered free of cost to its users. E-mail addresses are offered for free and this has helped Hotmail in acquiring large subscriber base. Integration of Hotmail in Microsoft sites has helped in driving traffic to sites like Expedia that are revenue-generated. Hotmail users will also be of immense help in generating advertising revenues for its parent company. It has adopted reasonable and low-cost pricing strategy that makes its rates affordable. Users of Hotmail receive storage space of 5GB and 25GB on Windows Live-Skydrive.
Promotion mix in the Marketing Mix Of Hotmail :
Promotional activities are an integral part of any organisation as it helps in keeping the company at the top. Hotmail is one of the most desired and recognised service providers and does not cater to extensive campaigns. It relies heavily on its viral marketing policy to create and retain visibility amongst consumers.
Word-of-mouth or viral marketing is one of the most sought-after strategies in the world adopted successfully by Hotmail. It has helped in improving communications through advanced technology by creating viral commercials in form of interactive flash images, video clips, text and images. Each and every user of Hotmail is an involuntary and automatic salesperson as he/she helps in its advertisement amongst other users.
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