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Gmail's Users Fewer, but Younger and Richer, Than Yahoo's & Hotmail's

The market share of US visits to Google’s Gmail increased 17% from February 2007 to April 2007, and was up 30% from April 2006 to April 2007, according to Hitwise. Google’s Gmail opened up access to all on February 14, 2007.

Yahoo Mail and Hotmail, however, remain the dominant web-based email services: Yahoo’s April 2007 share of visits was 13 times greater than Gmail’s; Hotmail’s was 6 times greater.

Gmail users, though, are in some ways a more attractive demographic than those of Yahoo Mail and Hotmail, which more closely resemble the general online population in age and socioeconomic status. Gmail users tend to be younger, with higher incomes, and earlier adopters.

For the four weeks ended April 28, 2007, 54% of visits to Gmail were from users age 18-34, compared with 42% for Yahoo Mail and 44% for Hotmail, according to Claritas PRIZM NE social group data (via Hitwise).

Some 18% of Gmail’s visits were from those with average annual household incomes between $100,000 and $149,999, compared with 15% those visiting Hotmail and 13% visiting Yahoo Mail.

Gmail users are also more likely to be Facebook users: 3.7% of Gmail’s downstream went to Facebook in April 2007, compared with 2.2% for Hotmail and 1.2% for Yahoo Mail.