Gmail hits 1 billion users

Google has announced that its Gmail email service has hit 1 billion users.
Alphabet recently held its first quarterly earnings call as a holding company for Google and its associated projects. As we’ve already seen this morning, a number of choice morsels of Google-flavoured information were divulged.
Such as the fact that Alphabet had overtaken Apple as the most valuable company in the world, or that it managed that feat despite blowing $3.6 billion in so-called ‘other bets’.
Another interesting snippets of info was the fact that Gmail had managed to reach 1 billion users, making up the final 100 million in just eight months.
https://twitter.com/statuses/694290964559429632
This places Google’s email service in the company’s increasingly cramped 1 billion club, alongside such ubiquitous services as Google Search, Chrome, Android, YouTube, Maps, and Google Play.
Perhaps more startling than that figure was the revelation that 10 percent of the replies sent out from Gmail’s mobile app are automated smart replies. These are quick responses sent out by Gmail following analysis of a message’s text.
Related: What is Alphabet? Google’s parent company explained
Overall, Alphabet made $4.9 billion on $21.3 billion in revenue during the last quarter. Over the whole of 2015, meanwhile, Alphabet earned $23.4 billion on revenue of $74.5bn.
With seven of its services attracting at least a billion customers, such figures are hardly surprising – regardless of a few loss-making moonshots.