Yahoo matches Gmail gigabyte - but only in China
Published: 29 Jul 2004 16:30 BST
Yahoo has increased the storage limit of its free email service tenfold in China, but users elsewhere may not get to enjoy the same benefit anytime soon.
In a statement on its mainland Web site, the company said it has boosted the storage capacity for its free mail service from 100MB to 1GB, matching the storage of rival Google's upcoming Gmail offering.
While Gmail's trials are confined to a select group, Yahoo's upgrade will be extended to all existing and new users of its mail service in China. However, subscribers must first log on to Yahoo's instant messenger service and add other users to their contact lists to qualify for the 1GB of storage.
A representative of Yahoo Southeast Asia said there are "no immediate plans" to offer a similar upgrade to users in other countries. Connecting to Yahoo's email page from the United States on Thursday shows the company still sticking with 100MB of free storage in other parts of the world.
The move marks the latest attempt by a major search giant to garner a greater share of China's booming Internet market, which, according to the China Internet Network Information Centre, is expected to exceed 100 million users by year's end.
Earlier this year, Google invested in Chinese search engine Baidu.com and launched its advertising product called AdWords in the Chinese language.
Not to be outdone by growing competition from international rivals, Chinese portals like Sina.com and Netease have reportedly joined the email storage war and raised the capacities of their email services.
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