Sabeer Bhatia
Sabeer Bhatia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 30 December 1968 (age 55)[1] Chandigarh,[2] India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Known for | Hotmail.com |
| Spouse |
Tanya Sharma
(m. 2008; div. 2013) |
| Children | 1 |
Sabeer Bhatia (born 30 December 1968)[3] is an Indian businessman who co-founded the first free web-based email service, Hotmail.com in 1996.[4] In 2021 he co founded ShowReel with his co founder Aji Abraham. ShowReel initially focused on connecting users through short videos for job seekers and founders. But now it turns into AI-Powered learning platform.[5]
Career
[edit]Bhatia briefly worked for Apple Computer, as a hardware engineer and Firepower Systems Inc. He, along with his colleague Jack Smith, set up Hotmail on 4 July 1996, American Independence Day, symbolizing "freedom" from ISP-based e-mail and the ability to access a user's inbox from anywhere in the world.[6]
As president and CEO, Bhatia led Hotmail until its eventual acquisition by Microsoft in 1998 for an estimated $400 million. Bhatia worked at Microsoft for one year after the Hotmail acquisition and in April 1999, left Microsoft to start another venture, Arzoo Inc, an e-commerce firm with investment from Mohammed Asif, a top Indian-American banker at JP Morgan.[citation needed]
Bhatia started a free messaging service called JaxtrSMS. He said that JaxtrSMS would do to SMS what Hotmail did for e-mail. Claiming it to be a disruptive technology, he says that the operators will lose revenue on the reduction in number of SMSes on their network but will benefit from the data plan that the user has to buy.[7] To date, JaxtrSMS service has failed to replicate the success of Hotmail. Recently[when?], he invested in email collaboration software, ccZen and another e-commerce technology provider E-junkie.
Personal life
[edit]Bhatia is of Sindhi Hindu heritage.[8][9]
Bhatia married Tanya Sharma in 2008 and they have a daughter Arianna. Later, they filed for divorce in January 2013 in a court in San Francisco, citing "irreconcilable differences".[10]
References
[edit]- ^ Bhatia, Sabeer (10 August 2002). "Sabeer Bhatia downloaded". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 18 May 2010. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
- ^ Gibbs, Samuel (11 April 2014). "The most powerful Indian technologists in Silicon Valley". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 11 April 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
- ^ Bhatia, Sabeer (10 August 2002). "Sabeer Bhatia downloaded". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 18 May 2010. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
- ^ "Sabeer Bhatia bio". its.caltech.edu. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
- ^ Rajan, Jessica (20 October 2023). "Hotmail cofounder Sabeer Bhatia's Showreel to become AI-based learning platform". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
- ^ "Sabeer Bhatiya : The founder of "Hotmail.com"". 4to40.com. Archived from the original on 10 February 2007. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
- ^ "AFP: Hotmail co-founder launches free SMS service". Archived from the original on 25 November 2011. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
- ^ Sakhrani, Tarun (4 January 2016). "The Sindhis of Sindh And Beyond". HuffPost. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
- ^ Pal, Joyojeet (30 May 2008). "Computers and the Promise of Development: Aspiration, Neoliberalism and 'Technolity' in India's ICTD enterprise" (PDF). University of California at Berkeley. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
- ^ "Splitsville for Sabeer Bhatia and wife".
Further reading
[edit]- Hirahara, Naomi; Smith, Henrietta M. (2003). Distinguished Asian American Business Leaders. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 23–26. ISBN 978-1573563444. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- Bronson, Po, "HotMale: Sabeer Bhatia started his company on $300,000 and sold it two years later for $400 million. So, is he lucky, or great?", Wired, Issue 6.12, December 1999
- Sabeer Bhatia; Asian American Journalists Association (2000). Asian-Americans & society. West Lafayette, Ind., C-SPAN Archives. ISBN 9781573563444. OCLC 51456022.
- 1968 births
- Living people
- Businesspeople from Chandigarh
- Indian emigrants to the United States
- American computer scientists
- American people of Indian descent
- Apple Inc. employees
- Indian company founders
- American technology company founders
- Hardware engineers
- Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani alumni
- California Institute of Technology alumni
- Stanford University alumni
- American chief executives
- Microsoft employees
- Indian Hindus
- American people of Sindhi descent
- 20th-century Indian engineers
- 21st-century American inventors