An upstart called Hotmail showed the world what could be done with word-of-mouth online in 1997. The company started to offer free Web-based e-mail, appending a "get your free, private e-mail" message In 18 months, Hotmail signed up over 12 million subscribers, spending less than $500,000 on advertising. Compare that to Juno, which spent tens of millions on marketing and still has only a fraction of Hotmail's membership.
Pass It On
The Standard (September 18, 2000)