Why are email services like Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL etc. free?

Almost every email service today can hold GBs of data, the company does not cost even a penny for providing the service. Everyone can make an account easily and there is no limit on how many accounts can one person have. There is unlimited amount of data currently on servers.





Why is companies providing all this free?


Where does this huge amount of storage capacity come from?


Where is all this 'infinity' amount of data being stored?


What benefit do the companies have?


Will it be free forever?
Why are email services like Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL etc. free?
In one word- Advertising!


Other companies are willing to pay companies like Yahoo (yes, they are a company business), a lot of money to advertise on their Internet sites because they know they are generally drawing in millions of people to use email, etc., and will be more likely to see the ad and maybe purchase from them.. (Like ads/commercials during a TV show you get on free TV.) Also, not all of the services the companies like Yahoo, AOL, etc., are totally free, and they are not all limited to just email. Many Internet company businesses like Yahoo also get income from other sources such as books, software, etc. Some people are even willing to pay for the extra goodies they want to have on their paid email sites, too, like even more storage space!. So these companies can offer the basic email to the general public for free because they are getting paid a lot of money by advertisers for the ads they have placed, plus all of the other things that are generating income for them


It's a business, after all.
Reply:Advertising is the main and perhaps the only source for money for those companies. It's the same for TV channels, and they are the reason why magazines are cheap.


As the technological advances come along and increase every year, more and more information can be stored in smaller spaces, they are stored in servers, i assume they are large hard disks located wherever needed.


As long as the funding through advertisements remains they shall be free.
Reply:The companies provide all the above services free to us because they get paid by advertisers. Almost every page has advertisements on them. Some site have pop-ups, etc... Believe me, the companies make plenty of money.





The circle; advertisers pay the company to advert on their sites, we pay the advertisers for their products, the money from the products goes back into advertising, then we go and pay for the products again. It's neverending really. It's slowed down lately but it will never stop.
Reply:Just like they said - Advertising





If you ever try to contact Hotmail or Google to advertise with them, just ask about the cost of that ....!





you'll be shocked .... :-D





you can try that yourself





try google in the USA - California





Google Inc.


1600 Amphitheatre Parkway


Mountain View, CA 94043


Phone: +1 650-253-0000


Fax: +1 650-253-0001





or in London - England





Google UK Ltd


Belgrave House


76 Buckingham Palace Road


London SW1W 9TQ


United Kingdom


Phone: +44 (0)20-7031-3000


Fax: +44 (0)20-7031-3001