Well, Rediff’s (NSDQ: REDF) “Unlimited” advertisement may have created the a lot of buzz, but they’re not alone in offering Unlimited mail: you must already be aware that Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) will offer unlimited mail May onwards to users in all its operating countries except for Japan and China, because of local laws (as per Yahoo PR).
Now Indian casual gaming site Zapak, which had messaging facilities has launched Zapak Mail, offering its users unlimited email space. The facility is in Beta, with maximum mail size (including attachments) at 16mb per mail; spellcheck, contact groups and POP access are in the works. They have also launched a Power Mail in beta, which is remarkably similar to Yahoo Mail. The regular mail has some issues - I got logged out while trying to attach a file…But why would a gaming site give free unlimited mail?
Well, I think the idea is to roll out features one by one to ensure that users remain within the ecosystem. That way, advertising can be delivered to them at every possible instance. So does this mean that we can expect more generic services from Zapak like a social network, a chat room and an IM? Forums are already there, and some multiplayer games have chat rooms; the Reliance ADA Group social network is due to be launched. And how do they plan to encourage the use of the email? Says the welcome message: “We will send you prize confirmations, information on your account and important announcements on this email address.”
I visited Zapak today after quite some time, and they’ve done a redesign. Also noticed that their Zapak Girls Zone has recipes, ayurveda, self defense, health, fashion and user submitted clips. Closed user forums for women would be a good idea, since some responses to posts by women on their forums are rather inappropriate, and would hinder participation from women.