Far from being the most popular personal email service providers, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Outlook also provide some of the most convenient and cost-effective tools and utilities ideal for small business email needs. Although appearing to indistinguishable email services, they are uniquely differentiated and biased for particular user needs.
Product Strategy
I noticed that Gmail lets one import emails from another provider – be it Yahoo or Outlook, and access them from neat folders close by the Gmail’s inbuilt ones. That is fantastic because it saves the hassle of having to switch accounts. In my case, I accessed a friend’s email to my Microsoft outlook email from Gmail, and I thought that is an outstanding feature. Noticeably, Outlook has the same feature, but it is quite trickier because it involves using an external service plugin, which some expertise, in my opinion. Also, I found out that Gmail offers automation, analytics, and extra storage services for businesses through BackupGoo and Backupify , although they are third party services. The same is hard to replicate for Yahoo Mail and Outlook.
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Yahoo takes user security and comfort more seriously. My previous experience with Gmail and Yahoo supports the fact that Gmail is more lenient with spam mails. On the other hand, Yahoo Mail has a high reputation for privacy because it has a robust feedback loop, which imminently seals off a sender one marked as “spam” (Rideout, 2016). Also, Outlook beats both Gmail and Yahoo with its “Delete all from” utility, which allows the user to delete all emails from one sender. While Gmail limits email attachments at 50MB, Outlook provides for as much as 100MB. Outlook’s 1TB storage capacity per user also exceeds Gmail’s over 50 times.
The apps have different user interface suitability. I find Gmail’s interface while typing a new message bothersome. While Yahoo and Outlook open a whole new page for writing emails, Gmail opens a small frame to type in. Outlook also offers an intuitive integration with social media sites like Instagram and Twitter, enabling the user to respond to a tweet without leaving Outlook. While Yahoo Mail’s mobile app allows altering background theme settings, the Gmail app lacks the feature.
Positioning Strategy
Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo Mail are direct competitors and the market is not significantly differentiated. That pushes them to opt for innovation to survive the competition. While the three email services are practically similar, but Yahoo is more business-oriented. For instance, creating a group is achieved easily – by sending an email to multiple people at once. Unlike its competitors, Yahoo mail does not require any exquisite settings to have the replies carbon copied to all individuals in the group. That is why Josh Jacobson, a senior director at Yahoo, said the service is strategizing to “solve for essentially corporate use cases” (Ha, 2019). Its charges for a business plan (that hosts the business’ email domain) are the least compared to Gmail and Outlook.
On the other hand, Google is user-oriented, aiming to maximize the populace with personal email senders. No wonder its ever-rolling updates are always aimed at enhancing the user interface. With every update, Gmail adds colour and reshapes the buttons. Microsoft Outlook appears to fall in between the business and personal motive but moderately leans towards service integration. For instance, Outlook offers a convenient way to integrate contacts and calendar services, including Google Calendar. Besides, it has a feature to schedule meeting rooms, which is easier to set up than Gmail’s.
How They Make Money
Despite offering their services for free, Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, and Yahoo Mail have innovative strategies to earn them money. Gmail makes money from advertisements. In the standard inbox setup, Gmail allows third parties to run advertisements in the “Promotions,” “Social,” and “Updates” tabs. Similarly, Yahoo and Outlook also run adverts, which are often stoppable by purchasing an annual subscription, which also earns money. Kelly (2015) adds that the free email providers sell analytics data from clients’ emails to marketing companies. The companies also charge for extra storage capacity above the usual free thresholds above the standard (15GB for Gmail and 100GB for Outlook, and 1TB for Yahoo Mail). Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Outlook also earn from affiliate links, whereby they get paid when a client visits another website from an email.
References
Ha, A. (2019, September 23). “The Latest Version of Yahoo Mail Helps Users Find Attachments and Deals.” Tech Crunch. Retrieved https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/23/yahoo-mail-update/
Kelly, H. (2015, April 1). “Why Gmail and Other E-Mail Services Aren't Really Free.” CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/31/tech/web/gmail-privacy-problems/index.html
Rideout, M. (2016, August 4). “Email Feedback Loops: What Are They & How to Use Them.” Green Arrow Email. Retrieved https://www.greenarrowemail.com/blog/email-feedback-loops-what-are-they-how-to-use-them
