" Take hotmail for example, while it might have not generated a $100 mil in revenues yet"
I'd bet it's way more than that due to volume, brand recognition and since it directly circulates hotmail users to microsoft properties. But similar to you, I don't know either. However, I think that's a great example of a user acquisition that has worked so far - thank you - I was having problems thinking of examples.
Not to sounds too 37signally, but what about the freemium model?