2. Building a product on top of a Google product, even if it is Gmail?
3. Stop trying to make email something that it's not. Basecamp, Slack, Trello, they're successful because they aren't email. Add-ons to email are just headaches for everyone
According to this link (just a quick google search for email usage by age) shows that young people (<25) are more likely to use email than folks over 45, coming in at 91% of younger people in the US using email.
Do they -hate- it? Harder to say, but I think that if 9/10 people use it, they likely don't hate it.
I can never reach my non-technical friends any more by email, I have to use text messaging or facebook messaging. My more technical family members use slack.
Sure everyone has an email account, but the less technical seem to not be using it any more. The excuse they give is that it is filled with spam and they don't know how to get rid of the spam.
If I absolutely want to reach everyone in a diverse group I use text messaging even though I hate text messaging.
2. Access to a potentially huge user base.
3. Basecamp, Slack and Trello all depend on emails to get users to re-engage. Slack less so that Basecamp and Trello
If you don't like it, and YOU refuse to use it, fine. Just say that.