New research by YouGov and digital marketing provider Pure360 has found that Microsoft’s Hotmail is Britain’s most widely used email host, easily beating Gmail and other providers.
Nearly a third of Britons online (29%) confirmed they used Hotmail as their main personal email account, with Yahoo second most popular (15%) and Google’s Gmail in third place (14%).
The online survey of over 2,000 people also reveals that Hotmail is particularly popular amongst young adults, with 47% of 18 to 24 year olds claiming they have Hotmail as their main personal account. It also revealed that the average Brit online has four email accounts and that Hotmail is more popular amongst women (31%) than men (27%).
Abi Jacks, Head of Marketing at Pure360 commented: “We were really surprised at how dominant Hotmail is in this
country, particularly with Microsoft recently replacing the brand with Outlook.com. With Microsoft also launching its first smartphone alongside Nokia last week, it’ll be interesting to see if the business holds on to more British hearts and minds than critics might expect.”
Regionally, Hotmail reaches its greatest popularity in the North East, where 39% use the MSN email host as their main personal email account. Gmail’s highest popularity is in London, where 18% of users are choosing Google’s service.
The research from Pure360 and YouGov also reveals that AOL is the least popular email host, with only 3% of respondents saying they used an AOL account as their main personal account.