Gmail now boasts more than 1 billion monthly active users. The milestone was announced by Google CEO Sundar Pichai during Alphabet’s first earnings call.
The news came a day after Alphabet (Google’s newly formed parent company) overtook Apple as the most valuable company in the world, with a market valuation of $533.4 billion.
Gmail is now the seventh service by Google to boast over 1 billion monthly users. Other Google services with more than a billion users include Search, Android, YouTube, Google Play, Google Maps and Chrome.
Gmail posted the following tweet celebrating the milestone:
Thanks a billion for helping us make Gmail better and better!https://t.co/Rd82YqwGjl
— Gmail (@gmail) febrero 1, 2016
Gmail initially started as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004. The service became available in beta status to the general public on February 7, 2007. It wasn’t until July 7, 2009 that it was upgraded from beta status – along with the rest of the Google Apps suite. It has since become the most widely used web-based email provider.
Google’s products and services are (by far) the most widely used in the world. To put its dominance in perspective, Facebook only has two services with over a billion users; the Facebook social media network and the mobile messaging service ‘WhatsApp’.