 |
Sabeer BhatiaIndian and American entrepreneur
Date of Birth: 30.12.1968
Country:  USA |
Content:
Biography of Sabir Bhatia
Sabir Bhatia, an Indian-American entrepreneur, is the founder of the email service 'Hotmail' and the free messaging service 'Jaxtr'.
Early Life and Education
Sabir Bhatia was born on December 30, 1968, in Chandigarh, India, and grew up in Bangalore. He attended school in Pune and later transferred to St. Joseph's Boys' High School in Bangalore. In 1988, Bhatia went to the United States to pursue a bachelor's degree at the California Institute of Technology through a student exchange program with the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, Rajasthan. He earned a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
Career
After finishing his studies, Bhatia worked as a hardware engineer at Apple Computer and had commitments with Firepower Systems Inc. It was during this time that he realized the potential of accessing any software on the internet through a web browser. On July 4, 1996, Bhatia and his colleague Jack Smith launched the first free web-based email service, 'Hotmail'. In the 21st century, 'Hotmail' remains the second largest email service provider in the world with over 369 million registered users. Only Google's free email service, 'Gmail', has surpassed this figure. As the president and CEO of Hotmail, Bhatia led the company to success, and in 1998, Microsoft expressed interest in acquiring Hotmail. After the acquisition, Bhatia worked at Microsoft for just over a year. In April 1999, he left the company to start his new venture, 'Arzoo Inc.', an e-commerce company. Bhatia also worked on the development of the free messaging service 'JaxtrSMS', aiming to revolutionize SMS messaging, similar to what 'Hotmail' did for email. However, 'JaxtrSMS' did not achieve the same level of success as 'Hotmail'. Currently, Bhatia is investing his resources in developing software for the email service 'ccZen'.
Achievements
Due to his prolific work, Bhatia has gained widespread attention and recognition. He was named "Entrepreneur of the Year 1997" by venture firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recognized Bhatia as one of the "100 Young Innovators Who Will Shape the Future of Technology". The magazine 'POV' also named him one of the ten most successful entrepreneurs of 1998.
Personal Life
Sabir Bhatia was engaged to Gita Oberoi in 2003 but the engagement was called off. He married Tania Sharma in 2008, but the marriage ended in divorce in 2013.
