In what year was Hotmail launched?

Hotmail was launched in 1996, becoming one of the first free webmail services available to the general public.

Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith officially launched the service on July 4, 1996. The date was chosen to evoke independence from Internet service providers, since users could access their inboxes from any web browser rather than relying on an ISP-specific email program.

The name was originally styled “HoTMaiL” to highlight the letters HTML, the markup language used to create web pages. Hotmail initially offered 2 MB of free storage, which was modest by modern standards but appealing at a time when web-based email was still novel.

Hotmail grew rapidly and reportedly had more than 8.5 million subscribers by December 1997. Microsoft acquired the service in 1997 for a reported $400 million, and it was later rebranded as Outlook.com. A common mix-up is confusing Hotmail’s launch in 1996 with Microsoft’s acquisition or the later Outlook.com rebranding.