Hotmail Stays on Top of Free E-mail Providers

Hotmail, the free email service available from the Ninemsn portal, continues to dominate the
Australian free e-mail market, according to latest research figures.

Independent research analysts Red
Sheriff estimate Hotmail gained a reach of 52.3 per cent of the
Australian Web audience during March, giving it a 15.3 per cent lead over
its nearest competitor.

According to Ninemsn, the number of Australian registered accounts grew
to more than two million in March, a jump of nearly one million over the
past 12 months.

Ninemsn, the joint venture between ecorp and Microsoft, hopes that the
addition of new value-added services such as the WebCourier and
anti-spamming tools will continue to set Hotmail apart from other free
e-mail services.

The WebCourier service delivers Web sites directly to the user’s inbox,
from a range of eleven different ninemsn categories.