If you use Gmail, then you might have been startled to see an advertisement promoting Amazon products on your screen today. This isn’t just some glitch in the system — it’s part of Google’s new promotion strategy to sell their ad space to interested parties, and that means you might start seeing more ads from Google directly in the future. But does this mean that Amazon owns Gmail? Let’s find out!
Does Amazon own Gmail?
The short answer to why Amazon owns Gmail is no. You might not have heard of Google, but you’ve almost certainly heard of Amazon—which means that it’s worth looking into whether or not Amazon owns Gmail. On a day-to-day basis, you probably use both companies for very different reasons.
Google is a search engine and email provider (among other things), while Amazon is an online retailer where you can buy books, clothes, electronics, and much more.
Each company is privately owned by its respective founders—but while that’s true in one sense, Google is also linked to parent company Alphabet Inc., which was founded by none other than Larry Page himself. Many people use Gmail for their personal and professional needs.
Amazon is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing corporation based in Seattle, Washington, founded by Jeff Bezos on July 5, 1994, according to Wikipedia. Meanwhile, Google is a tech giant specializing in online advertising technologies and web search services.
Who owns Gmail?
Gmail is owned by Google. It’s open-source, meaning that while Google might host and maintain your account, anyone can use and contribute to its development. When Gmail began in 2004, it offered one gigabyte of storage per user, which was far more than its competitors at the time.
Google’s mail servers automatically analyze emails for a variety of reasons, including spam and virus filtering and the insertion of contextually relevant advertisements next to emails. If you have privacy concerns about email on Google, there are plenty of other services out there that offer their takes on email.
If you’re looking for something simpler or better integrated with other services like Microsoft Office apps or iCloud, check out Outlook or Spark instead; if privacy is your primary concern, try encrypted services like ProtonMail instead. But regardless of where you decide to go—or whether you opt-out entirely—your inbox will always be yours.
How did Gmail start?
When Google introduced its revolutionary e-mail system in 2004, it came with 1 gigabyte of free storage. At that time, that was huge. The biggest competitor at that time (Hotmail) had only 2 megabytes of free storage, and users could upgrade to 10 megabytes for $19.95 a year. Today, Hotmail is still around but has since been renamed as Outlook, so it’s fair to say that Yahoo took over as a leading e-mail provider.
But Gmail didn’t stop there. After steadily increasing its storage allowance over years, by 2012 users were enjoying 7 gigabytes of free space on their mailboxes. That same year, Google launched another product: Drive—the company’s equivalent to Dropbox and OneDrive.
And then in 2013, there was Hangouts—Google’s answer to Skype and WhatsApp—which gave way to Allo and Duo chat apps later on in 2016 (Allo) and 2017 (Duo). These days Google even offers an AI assistant called Assistant that competes with Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Alexa from Amazon.
Some might be surprised by how far ahead of competitors technology giants are today when it comes to cloud services such as Microsoft Office 365 or Apple iCloud.
Will Amazon acquire Gmail?
There are a lot of buzzes out there around an impending acquisition of Google by Amazon. Rumors are just that: rumors. But if you’re concerned about what might happen to your Gmail account or documents if such an acquisition goes through, don’t be—you can rest easy knowing that your email and documents will remain yours should such a deal go through.
It makes sense: why buy something if you’re going to strip it down or dissolve it entirely? As it stands, at least for now, both companies seem dedicated to maintaining their respective businesses and keeping customers happy.
Conclusion
From a legal standpoint, Google’s Gmail service is not considered owned by any other party. It can be argued that we are all owners of Google and Gmail, as we use their services freely daily. While Amazon does have ownership over such things as Kindle Fire tablets and Echo speakers, they don’t own emailing itself; therefore, do not fall into thinking you will one day find yourself locked out of your Gmail account due to pressure from another company.
F&Q
Is it possible for Amazon to access my Google account?
If you’re using an Amazon device, you’ll need to give Amazon permission to access, read, and send your emails, as well as send them through your Google Account. There’s no reason for Amazon to want access to your account if you’re not using an Amazon device.
What is Amazon’s version of Gmail?
If you want to communicate with Amazon via email, send an email to cs-reply@amazon.com.
Is there an email service provided by Amazon?
Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is a low-cost email service based on Amazon’s trustworthy and scalable infrastructure. Send a transactional email, marketing messages, or any other form of high-quality material to your customers with Amazon SES.
