Origins of Hotmail: Hotmail, founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, was one of the pioneers of web-based email services. It launched on July 4, 1996, and quickly became one of the first and most popular free webmail services in the early days of the internet. The key innovation that set Hotmail apart was its web-based interface, which allowed users to access their email from any computer with an internet connection.