Hotmail, the pioneering e-mail client has finally come to an end.
The service, founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, was acquired by Microsoft in 1997 – a year after its founding – and remained one of the most popular email services until its closure; Hotmail had 360 million users as of last year, placing it second in size behind Gmail.
Outlook.com, a web-based version of Microsoft’s Outlook software, with a Metro UI design that closely matches Windows’ latest design.
In a post on the Outlook blog, the company announced that the migration of Hotmail accounts to the new Outlook.com platform had been completed. Claiming over 400 million active accounts, 125 of which are accessed from mobile devices, Microsoft stated that it took 6 weeks to migrate 150 petabytes (150 million gigabytes) of email.
Thanking those who have supported Hotmail, Outlook.com Program Manager Dick Craddock added the following message:
We want to give a huge “Thank you” to all of you who have supported Hotmail over the years, for some of you, that’s going back as far as 1996. It has been an amazing journey and we’ve been honored to provide you with a great mail experience for many years. When we launched the original preview of Outlook.com, we knew that we were committing to building the world’s best email with a brand and product experience that spans from consumers all the way to the largest organizations. We’re excited to have you join Outlook.com as we write the next chapter in modern email from Microsoft.”