Gmail, Google's email service, celebrated its 20th anniversary on April 1, 2024. Launched on April Fool's Day, many users thought it was a prank by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Gmail offered a massive 1 gigabyte of storage at launch, which was much more than competitors. This feature, along with search capabilities, set Gmail apart. Today, Gmail is the world's leading email service, with millions of users globally.
Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, congratulated Gmail on its anniversary, reflecting on its journey in a social media post. "Happy 20th birthday, @gmail! Glad it wasn't an April Fools' Day prank after all," he wrote.
Google India also celebrated with a video highlighting a common user mistake: forgetting to attach files. The video clip shows a message that reads, "Happy Birthday, Gmail. Celebrating 20 years of this beautiful attachment. PFA: Your gift."
Gmail has evolved significantly since its launch. Google is constantly adding new features and recently announced an "AI-powered Help Me Write" option to assist users in composing emails.
With over 1.8 billion active users globally, Gmail reigns supreme as the world's most popular email service. This vast user base translates to roughly 27% of all email traffic flowing through Gmail. Interestingly, 75% of these users access their accounts on mobile devices, making it a platform for on-the-go communication. Gmail's dominance is particularly strong in the US, where it holds a market share of nearly 76%.
Gmail's success led Google to launch other products like Google Maps, Docs, the Chrome browser, and the Android operating system. Google also acquired YouTube during this period.
