Gmail is Google’s 7th service to hit 1-bn user mark

Google's chief executive officer Sundar Pichai announced at the Google/Alphabet earnings call on Monday that the Gmail service is their latest product to exceed one billion users.

Gmail follows six other Google products - Android, Chrome, Maps, Search, YouTube and the Google Play Store - each of which currently has a billion plus users.

Gmail quickly rose to fame when it was launched in 2004 with its unconventional large mailbox offering, teamed with fast and effective searching. Despite the service being invite-only, it saw very quick adoption, in large part due to its clean interface and mail-first design.

Since then the company has been working towards re-inventing the emailing experience to keep in tune with changing times - their Inbox app available on Android and iOS delivers new ways to put key email-centric information up front and centre within a user's mobile experience.

Over the years, Google has been working on improving the email experience for users. Its filtering has gotten better, and Gmail also sorts the spam, marketing, promotions, and personal emails quite efficiently. Gmail has also become elegant to look at, embracing Material Design, the new design language the company announced with Android Lollipop in 2014.

This doesn't change the fact that Google has had its fair share of lemons - Google Wave, Buzz and Plus are some of its launches that failed to see significant user adoption.

Social media competitor Facebook, with its claimed 1.5 billion users, does surpass Google in this regard, and its acquired chat application Whatsapp has only just surpassed the 1 billion user mark. Its photo-sharing Instagram is still playing catch up though.

To talk about Gmail's competitors, Outlook had more than 420 million users as of 2013. Microsoft hasn't shared new data since. Yahoo Mail had more than 281 million users as of 2012. Yahoo too hasn't shared new stats since..

At the earnings call it was also revealed that the Mountain View-based company stands as the most valuable US company, surpassing Apple.

Google's parent company Alphabet continues to make bets on fledgling technology projects that they refer to as ''moonshots'', including their self-driving cars project, and drones and balloons that blanket landmasses with broadband internet.