Times Internet Limited, India’s No1 Internet network has decided to shutdown its email service which is offered under the brand name ‘Indiatimes Email‘. The service has stopped from accepting any new registration from this Monday (19th November, 2012). Indiatimes.com Email service will get permanently shut down with effect from 18th February, 2013 at 12 PM (Indian Standard Time).
Indiatimes Email service was started on early 1999 by Times Group and then relaunched in 2007. According to Times Group the email service has around a million users, which has been providing unlimited storage and document sharing.
According to a notice put up on website saying “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.“
“The decision to shut down Indiatimes email was not an easy one, since it was one of Times Internet’s first properties in the online space. But free consumer email is an extremely commoditized environment without any real business model. We don’t expect to lose much traffic by discontinuing email because most of our regular users visit us for the content and services we offer” commented Archana Vohra, Vice President, Times Internet Limited during Q&A with Jai Vardhan of NBW, Nextbigwhat.
Indiatimes Email service has been facing high competition from feature rich Google’s Gmail, stylish new Microsoft’s Outlook and Yahoo mail. The lack of scalability and innovation has force Time Group to axe Indiatimes Enail service.
If you are a Indiatime user do immediately download all your emails, contact list and data from the mailbox. Users can continue to log in to all Times Internet Limited network sites using their Indiatimes.com email address.