Indiatimes Mail To Shut Down By 18th February 2013

[mmadhankumar]

Times Internet Ltd is pulling the plug on its email service Indiatimes Mail. According to a notice on the site, the service will stop accepting new users from 19th November 2012, and Indiatimes email will itself permanently shut down from 18th February 2013, at 12 PM Indian Standard Time.

Why this is particularly interesting is that email has usually been a tool for ensuring regular usage of horizontal portals: Yahoo India, for example, is believed to get much of its traffic in India for its email service, and the landing page (Yahoo.com) benefits as a result, providing access to news and information to its visitors, contributing multiple pageviews as a result. Ditto for MSN India; this is also probably one of the reasons why In.com had added email to its portfolio of services; India.com initially pitched the India.com email address to its users. Email is supposed to contribute not only regular usage, but also significant pageviews. In addition, there are email footer ads on offer for advertisers.

Times Internet Ltd could have decided to shut it down if the return on investment on email wasn’t significant: it wasn’t contributing significantly in terms of pageviews or revenues.

Copy of the notice on Indiatimes.com below

This is to inform that the Indiatimes.com Email Service will stop accepting new users from 19th November, 2012.

The Indiatimes.com Email Service (“Service”) will be discontinued and shall be permanently shut down with effect from 18th February, 2013 at 12 PM (Indian Standard Time).

You will no longer be able to send or receive mails or access your account for the purpose of reading mail and/or transfer any data (i.e. emails, tasks, documents, folders, appointments, and/or contacts) currently saved in your account post 18th February, 2013 – 12 P.M(Indian Standard Time).

Details on how to download your mails here


Indiatimes Mail To Shut Down By 18th February 2013 - MediaNama

 

[Bapun]

Indiatimes Mail to shut down by February 2013

Indiatimes is shutting down its free email service presently being offered at email.indiatimes.com. The service has stopped accepting new users and people visiting the website are being warned of the service's impending demise. (via MediaNama/ @dinakaran)

While email services from Indiatimes and Rediff were popular a few years back, the rise of Gmail has seen Google take away lion's share of email traffic in India. Sure, some people have stuck around with Yahoo and Hotmail but it's rare to see someone sporting @Indiatimes or @Rediffmail email address anymore. As MediaNama notes as well, it is likely that the company feels the cost required to keep the service alive no longer justifies the return (in terms of advertising), hence the decision to shut it down.

Existing users are being warned to backup any data before 18th February 2013 at 12PM, the proposed shutdown time of the service.

Here's the message that appears on the website :

This is to inform that the Indiatimes.com Email Service will stop accepting new users from 19th November, 2012.

The Indiatimes.com Email Service ("Service") will be discontinued and shall be permanently shut down with effect from 18th February, 2013 at 12 PM (Indian Standard Time).

You will no longer be able to send or receive mails or access your account for the purpose of reading mail and/or transfer any data (i.e. emails, tasks, documents, folders, appointments, and/or contacts) currently saved in your account post 18th February, 2013 - 12 P.M(Indian Standard Time). You are advised to immediately download all your emails/contacts/data from your Indiatimes mailbox via IMAP at the earliest.

You can continue to log in to all Times Internet Limited network sites using your Indiatimes.com email address.

Indiatimes Mail to shut down by February 2013 | NDTV Gadgets

 

[timkamat]

RE: Indiatimes Mail to shut down by February 2013

Yes, even I received a mail to this effect.

 

[mmadhankumar]

RE: Indiatimes Mail to shut down by February 2013

Posted already...

Indiatimes Mail To Shut Down By 18th February 2013

 

[nskaran]

Nice & useful information sharing by madhan & bapun bros

 

[Bapun]

There are many indiatimes mail service users, really sad news for them..