Yahoo's YMail - Don't Really Get It

I was talking with someone at work about Yahoo’s (YHOO) much-heralded launch of two new email domains, Rocketmail (which is actually an old domain resurrected) and Ymail, and despite much back-and-forth about it, I still couldn’t really see the point, and in fact still don’t. I mean, I’m familiar with the rationale given by Yahoo, which is that there are lots of people out there who haven’t signed up for email because they can’t get their name, or their favourite nickname, or whatever. And maybe there’s some truth to that. But how many of those people could there possibly be? Is this really a market segment that is crying out for Yahoo’s help?

A couple of other things that struck me: 1) Are people really going to switch that easily from [e-mail] or whatever (or [e-mail]) to a new Ymail or Rocketmail address? Every time I’ve switched from one email to another it’s been a gigantic pain in the ass, and I have vowed to never do it again — there are all those people you have to spam with your new mail. It’s a nightmare. That’s why I got a Gmail address in the first place, so that when I changed Internet providers I could just redirect my mail to that address. I personally know of several people who pay two ISPs, simply because they don’t want to give up their old email address.

And those are the old folks. Point number 2) Anyone younger than about 30 doesn’t seem interested in having an email address period, let alone caring whether it’s [e-mail] or whatever. My teenaged daughters and their friends never use email anyway — they text message (in which case all you need is a phone number) or they use Facebook messages as a way of communicating. I send them email and they never get it. Do they have email addresses? Yes, and they are a combination of their names, underscores, numbers and nicknames, and so on — and they couldn’t care less. Not exactly a huge market opportunity there either, I wouldn’t say.

In a lot of ways, Yahoo seems to be fighting a war that has already been won — which, given some of the other things that have been going on at the company over the past couple of years, probably isn’t all that surprising. I was trying to think of an analogy for this latest campaign, and it’s a little like the company has decided to announce a new kind of typewriter where the keys don’t stick as much, or a better version of the pay phone, or a new video-tape recorder. In other words, WTF?

Comments

[Talk is Cheap:]

People come up with something just for the heck of it so that they don't look like they have run out of ideas. I think Yahoo! is in that situation now.

2008 Jun 19 02:05 PM

[Noway:]

Yes you guys really don't get it. A lot of people do want easier email addresses and many will sign up for it. This will win Yahoo! more users and loyalty, which is very key.
Despite numerous teenagers not using email, email has become such a vital service that almost everyone will need it.
When the kids get into high school or college, they will no doubt need it.
What you think they can get away with, "oh can you send the project or homework to my facebook or text it to me"?

Have you ever seen a resume without an email address or with a facebook addy?

2008 Jun 19 02:28 PM

[Southbay Steve:]

Do you really get paid to offer such a uneducated view on the email market place. do have any idea how many people have email address and the percentage of those that want an email address that are easy for people to remeber? although this isnt a paid for the product the number of pages that y! will sell advertising to will be significant and the need is there just bases on hoe many people use y! mail

2008 Jun 19 02:32 PM

[Mit:]

Hello Mathew,
Yahoo madded with these 2 new domains the first move from a new war, the web 2.0 war.

I use now a ZenBe email account, but I think that I will return to the Yahoo's Mail Inbox if Yahoo can offer an improved communication, and an easy access to all their services.

I'm excited to see the new model of Yahoo profile loaded also as a Mail Home Page (with personal blog, social network - 360, Mash, Hi5 -, personal pages - My Yahoo -, instant messenger, news buzzer, delicious bookmarking and other cool stuff).
Well, Yahoo also tries to cover more countries and more markets, as Eastern Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Ymail and RocketMail are just the first domains that are joining Yahoo.com, in the future other domains owned now by various free mail providers from different countries (countries without Yahoo services on this moment).

And all these good news from Yahoo will be followed by other good news from other providers.

2008 Jun 19 03:34 PM

[carlivar:]

So Yahoo launched a couple new email domains, big deal! It is the media hyping it. Does Yahoo really think it is so great? No, just a nice little improvement, nothing more. Move along.

2008 Jun 19 11:50 PM

[Robert R:]

Hi,

I'm a long time Yahoo loyalist. I think you may want to find out why Yahoo has not used y.com domain name for email service. I prefer to use that y.com for my email address.

Other than that, I'm happy with my existing Yahoo email address that I have with me for more than 10 years.

Thanks for the great article.

Robert

2008 Jun 20 12:20 AM

[carlivar:]

Robert,

Because Yahoo does not own y.com. Nobody does; it is a reserved name.

2008 Jun 20 01:34 AM

[Karthik_23:]

WTF? Ymail will definetely attract new users to yahoo. Itz better rather than having them deflect to gmail. I dont understand why some people have this problem of criticizing whatever move the poor company makes and make a column out of it. Some idea for a living.

2008 Jun 20 03:22 AM

[Zomack:]

They'll get an incremental number of new users -- no amount to write home about or worthy of even a PR, IMO. IF the cost to setup/maintain the accounts for these new domains(eg infrastructure, support staff, etc.) is relatively small then why not roll it out? Cost-benefit probably MIGHT make sense. Their probably piggybacking on existing infrastructure and support staff anyway so it's near trivial.

The potential for this will be WHAT services/features does that new customer(and a current one) get once they're convinced to sign up for a new email addy? This is what'll create loyalty, increase usage(time at site = more ad revenue) and grow the base.

Overall, though, I have little faith that this'll turn into anything like that at all. And it's a pretty big pain to switch addresses(if you have more than 2 friends/associates).

But, heck, why not?!

2008 Jun 20 09:28 PM

[carls:]

Years ago I wrote Yahoo! asking why they'd chosen such an absurd name - and couldn't I have an address without the Yahoo name.

Never got an answer <g>.

Now it comes to pass and I've got an address that I can put on a business card without feeling like a ... well, ready? ... a yahoo.

2008 Jul 09 10:35 AM