MUMBAI: Times Internet, the new media business arm of Times Group, has decided to close down its email service on Indiatimes.com effective 18 February 2013 due to unviability of the business.

The company said it has stopped accepting new users from 19 November.

The meteoric rise of Gmail has prompted Indiatimes.com to do a rethink on its email service. Gmail has lion‘s share of email traffic in India beating even traditional service providers like Yahoo and Hotmail.

"The Indiatimes.com Email Service will be discontinued and shall be permanently shut down with effect from 18th February, 2013 at 12 PM (Indian Standard Time).

ndiatimes.com Email Service will stop accepting new users from 19th November, 2012," the company informed its existing users.

"You will no longer be able to send or receive mails or access your account for the purpose of reading mail and/or transfer any data (i.e. emails, tasks, documents, folders, appointments, and/or contacts) currently saved in your account post 18th February, 2013 - 12 PM (Indian Standard Time)," it added.

Indiatimes.com advised all email users to download emails/contacts/data from their Indiatimes mailbox via IMAP. It also said that users can continue to log in to all Times Internet Limited network sites using Indiatimes.com email address.