Hey, Gmail and Yahoo – there’s a new email service offering more privacy, and it costs US$99 a year
- Of the 200,000 email users who have downloaded Hey, ‘tens of thousands’ have committed to pay US$99 a year for the service, says Jason Fried, its founder
- Fried says Hey can better protect its users’ privacy than existing free services such as Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook
Jason Fried wants you to get a new email address, even after all these years, and pay him US$99 a year to do so.
“Everybody really should change their email every 15 years or so,” he says. “Your current email address has been bought and sold and traded, and it’s full of junk. A fresh start is a great thing.”
Fried is the founder of Hey, an email service that debuted in mid-June and has picked up 200,000 downloads from people ready to add a hey.com to the end of their email.
On the face of it, “this seemed like the stupidest thing I’ve ever done”, says Fried, who is also the founder of Basecamp, a Slack-like communication tool for businesses. “I’m entering a mature market with tons of free options,” he says. “It’s kind of crazy to ask people to pay for something when there are so many free alternatives.”
His pitch is that there is no such thing as free.