Gmail users are younger, richer than Yahoo

There may not be a lot of them, but according to research from Hitwise, the users of Google's Gmail platform are younger and richer than users of Yahoo's free email platform. This is a fact that email marketers should take note of.

by Kristina Knight

According to Hitwise research, US visits to Gmail platforms increased 17% between February 2007 and April 2007. Visits were up 30% YoY (April 2006 to April 2007). The increases came after Gmail opened access to all users in February of this year. Even after opening access and the huge gains seen for Gmail, Yahoo and Microsoft's Hotmail still dominate the free mail spectrum.

Yahoo's market share is 4.27% while Hotmail's market share is 1.95% and Gmail's market share is only 0.39%.

Still, email marketers should take note of the growing Gmail popularity for one simple reason: demographic. Gmail's demographic is both younger and richer than the demogrphics attached to Yahoo and Hotmail, making those users a better target for marketers.

In April, 54% of Gmail visits were from users 18-34. Only 44% of Hotmail users and 42% of Yahoo visitors were from the same age group. Also, 18% of Gmail users had a household income of $100,000 or more compared with 15% of Hotmail and 13% of Yahoo users. Gmail users are also more active on social networks (3.7%) than Hotmail (2.2%) or Yahoo (1.2%) users.

Tags: 18-34, demographic research, email marketing

Comments (4)

Email to a friend

Print this article

Subscribe to BizReport

Please enter your e-mail here:

Comments

The advice to marketers above is flawed. While a smaller total percentage of hotmail users are in the demographic singled out, there' still 10-times more of them than Google users (based on market share quoted). In this example, Hotmail is still the best place for advertising dollars until Google makes more headway. As a g-mail user (of course I listed my other account to keep it more pristine) I do believe it will explode with popularity like all other things Google, so keep watch. But remember that percentage arguments are almost always misleading, especially in the press.

Posted by: bendyboy on May 16, 2007 02:43

bendyboy, he didn't give advice to marketers, just generalized that the users were more valuable targets. Statements like: "Hotmail is still the best place for advertising dollars until Google makes more headway" make little sense as you are, very falsely, assuming they charge the same price. Gmail is actually quite cheap by compare, although it will not let you put in anything but text ads.

Posted by: Scott Conger on August 30, 2007 22:33

GMail was initially rolled out to the 18-34 targeted group. So its not a surprising stat. What remains to be seen is if GMail can sustain it as it becomes bigger and more popular. Or will this fickle (and valuable) demographic move on to something "cooler"?

Posted by: emaildude on September 19, 2007 19:38

SIR MATTEW MEMORIAL LOAN and SERVICES,a government approved and certified company are currently Offering Private,Commercial,Christmas and Personal Loans with very Minimal Interest Rate as Low as 3% within a 1 year to 30 years repayment duration period to any part of the world. We give out loans within the minimum range of $2,000 to the maximum of $500,000,000USD.We are trusted and reliable.contact us through our email on sirmattewmemoriallenders@gmail.com we await you to offer our swift services.

Posted by: mr Hilton on March 5, 2010 11:37