MSN Doubles Worldwide Availability of Internet Subscription Service

REDMOND, Wash., May 14, 2003 — Consumers in 13 new markets around the world — including large parts of Asia, Europe and in Australia — now have the option of increasing their online storage space on the MSN® network of Internet services with an MSN Extra Storage offering in their local language and currency. The new markets include a Spanish version of MSN Extra Storage, which will be directly promoted to Spanish-speaking consumers in the United States through YupiMSN. The new localized versions of MSN Extra Storage extend the potential reach of the MSN subscription service to more than 76 million customers of the MSN Hotmail®
Web-based e-mail service.

MSN has expanded the availability of MSN Extra Storage to meet growing consumer demand and need for online storage space, especially among the majority of Hotmail users who rely on the free service as their primary e-mail account. MSN Extra Storage allows subscribers to store five times more e-mail than can be done with a standard Hotmail account and 10 times more photos and files on MSN Groups than the standard version.

“The volume and size of documents that people trade online continues to grow as e-mail and personal Web sites become an even more important communication tool,” said Lisa Gurry, group product manager for MSN. “By making MSN Extra Storage available to more people around the world in their own language, we can help meet this growing customer demand. This furthers our plans to broadly offer customers around the world a variety of high-quality subscription services in the future.”

New Markets Expand MSN Subscriptions in Asia, Europe and Australia

Initially launched in September 2001 in the United States and expanded to nine international markets in early 2002, MSN Extra Storage is now available to consumers in 23 markets in their own currency and language — 12 languages in all — more broadly available than any other Internet subscription service. The following are the new markets for MSN Storage subscribers:

  • Hong Kong (Chinese and English languages), Korea, Singapore

  • Austria, Belgium (French and Dutch markets), Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Sweden

  • Australia

  • Spanish-language offering in the United States through YupiMSN

Annual subscription rates vary based on the market.

Service Increases E-Mail Storage and Attachment Size Limit

MSN Extra Storage reduces the need for customers to frequently eliminate old e-mail messages from their Hotmail accounts and provides more room for creativity by allowing 10 times more storage space on MSN Groups. Size specifics include the following:

  • 10 megabytes (MB) of space for Hotmail storage — enough to store approximately 500 more e-mail messages than is possible with a standard free Hotmail account*

  • 30 MB of storage on MSN Groups — enough to store approximately 300 more photos than is possible with a standard free Hotmail account*

  • The ability to send or receive messages and attachments up to 3 MB, or three times that of a standard free Hotmail account

About MSN

MSN attracts more than 300 million unique users worldwide per month. With localized versions available globally in 34 markets and 18 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering Web services to consumers and digital marketing solutions to businesses worldwide. MSN 8 is the first Internet software product to have earned the trusted Good Housekeeping Seal. The most useful and innovative online service today, MSN brings consumers everything they need from the Web to make the most of their time online. MSN is located on the Web at http://www.msn.com/ . MSN worldwide sites are located at http://www.msn.com/worldwide.ashx .

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.

* The estimates of additional photos or e-mail storage are based on average sizes. Given that photo size and attachment size vary widely across users, the actual number of extra photos or e-mail messages may vary.

Microsoft, MSN and Hotmail are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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