Analytics firm comScore Networks announced Monday the results of its February measurement of instant messenger usage around the world, with Europe surpassing the United States in IM users for the first time. MSN Messenger was also ranked as the most used client, garnering 61 percent of the worldwide market. According to the survey, 82 million people in Europe use instant messaging software, amounting to 49 percent of the online population. In the United States only 69 million of people use IM, or 37 percent of the online population. Latin America had the highest IM penetration covering 64 percent of Web users.
Ok read the artical and am left with a few questions.
How did they ask?
What was the actual question?
This is due fact it does not say what they are measuring, if some one were to ask me what IM service I used it would be MSN. But I do not use MSN messenger, most people I know don’t not uses MSN messenger but the third party apps.
Are these being counted?
Indeed, seems they measured protocol usage. If they did it by measuring IM servers or at ISPs or via a survey..noone probably knows.
And to the two above: in Holland it’s 99% MSN.
And frankly, I’ve never seen anyone say ‘contact me on Yahoo messenger’, ever.
WFT…its installed by default, and starts with windows. I wonder how the statistics were compiled..actual logins or what?
…lol
Stop lying. It doesn’t connect automatically, you need to register and log in.
I didn’t saying anything about connecting automatically. I just said that it starts and is installed by default. Where is the lie?
-nX
Most of the people I know use Yahoo messenger. I do have MSN messenger and log into it but very rarely to i talk on it, mostly just lets me know when I have new email in my hotmail account.
I have my IM client configured NOT to talk to anyone using MSN messenger or anything that uses that protocol.
why?
The better question is why would I use it or support it.
The answer is quite simple: He’s an idiot.
Can’t say I miss you.
On behalf of the entire MSN user population…we thank you.
Perhaps you could do a favour to the whole IM population and extend your ‘practice’ to ALL instant messengers?
In europe, it’s pretty much king of the hill. YIM is the only other one near. The spam in MSN is getting too much though. Try apatch.tk to cut it out back to how MSN used to be, and should be.
Everyone i know uses AOL instant messenger – EVERYONE.
Does anyone know why Microsoft refuses to port MSN Messenger to Linux? They do after all port MSN Messenger to OSX which is UNIX based so porting to Linux shouldn’t be all that difficult. There’s no need to release the source code but providing one binary for RPM distributions (ie: Red Hat, Novell, etc) and a binary for Debian based distributions would help to increase their subscribers. I know there are alternatives on Linux but none of those alternatives provide VOIP chat with MSN Messenger clients. While webcam works with chat over the MSN protocol using this with out voice serves no purpose other than to confuse and frustrate a friend, family, etc using MSN Messenger.
Does anyone know why Microsoft refuses to port MSN Messenger to Linux?
Probably the same reasons they’re not supporting MSIE or Windows Mediaplayer for UNIX any more.
For one, it’s a support nightmare.
For one, it’s a support nightmare.
total lie. all they would have to do is release all or part of the package as open source, and it would be easy for the community to support it without microsofts help.
microsoft wants to kill linux, thats why they arent making things for it. they see it as the main competitor on the pc platform.
Your argument is moot. By not devoting endless amounts of money and manpower into porting a product to a platform you have never extrinsically supported in the past, you automatically “want to kill it”? To extend your simple views, any company who doesn’t port their application for Windows to Linux wants to “kill Linux”? I’m not saying Microsoft doesn’t want to “kill Linux”; in fact, I’m sure Steve Ballmer has detailed his wish to “kill Linux” strewn with colourful language many times in the past. Scope of support is hardly an indicator of a company’s most extreme intent. If I release a piece of software but cannot afford to support it, do I whole-heartedly want to kill it? Think before you post.
For one, it’s a support nightmare.
All they have to do is call it a beta and they wouldn’t have to actually care about supporting it.
The real reason Microsoft doesn’t support GNU/Linux desktop applications is obvious.
The real reason Microsoft doesn’t support GNU/Linux desktop applications is obvious.
Is it because most Microsoft desktop apps are way past version 1.0, whereas almost all Linux desktop apps are at version 0.something and it wouldn’t fit in with the GNU/Linux ethos??? 🙂
Edited 2006-04-12 07:53
the Mac OS X version is Crippleware so i don’t think Linux users want that
If this is any indicator as to the reason for market explosion of MSN, once we developed an Instant Messenger strategy, everyone at work ended up with an MSN account. The simple reason: you get to use your own work email as your account. Considering the number of customers we have, they now have a lot of MSN accounts and they are now also developing their IM strategy.
I guess in the usa it’s more yahoo and aol.
I never use msn.
Jabber has some unique features like being logged on different computers at the same time (with priorities), support for all the other networks thru transports (available in every client that implements the most basic protocols, as the contacts behave to the client the same way as normal contacts, it’s all server side) and the normal stuff like avatars, direct file transfers, etc.
Try out Gajim jabber client: http://gajim.org . You’ll never go back =)
Edited 2006-04-11 22:17
my wife refuses to use any of the im’s with linux, she is convinced that linux is evil.
She’s right. Buy her a diamond or something. She’s a keeper.
thanks for the suggestion, you’re right…she is a keeper. then i will buy a lapdance for the moderator of this thread at his favorite titty bar and he will stop being such a grouch !!
and I’ll chime in with the protocol that preceeded them all, and is still the primary one at the uni where I work (at least in computing services), zephyr. started at MIT’s athena project it has kerberos support (sadly still krb4 at the moment, but being worked on), chat “public” classes, informing you of when someone’s typing you a message, gaim support as well as decent console support (e.g. owl), and more.
actually I rather hated it when I started here, but now have come to rather appreciate it.
Everybody I know (I mean it) uses ICQ. It’s actually so wide-spread that it has become a synonym for instant messaging (few people know that term anymore) and if I had to guess the most widespread IM network used in Germany, I’d guess at ICQ. I have always wondered if this is typical for people of my age, but even some profs use it (if they don’t fall back to good old IRC). Actually, I could hardly imagine anybody use another network at all except through multi-protocol clients such as Trillian or Miranda (and except for geeks of course, for whom Jabber might be a good option due to the protocol gateways).
Being an individual with regards to IM networks simply defeats the whole purpose of IM…
Dont kid urself, Asians uses YM not MSN or AOL for that matter.
I don’t know anybody who uses MSN Messenger. I know people that use ICQ, AIM, Trillian, GAIM and iChat. But not a single one who uses MSN Messenger.
Like someone else said, MSN Messenger is installed with Windows and runs on startup. Even if you go into the registry and remove its Run entry, Windows Update puts it back every once in awhile.
Saying the MSN Messenger is the most-used IM client is a bit like saying KBOR is the most listened-to radio station at the dentist’s office.
Almost everybody I know in the US uses AIM (it used to be ICQ ~10 years ago). Everybody I know in Pakistan uses MSN. Everybody I know in the Philippines uses Yahoo.
Personally I’m trying convince everybody to switch to Jabber (it’s easier now that Google is all about Jabber). Got a few converts, but the features just aren’t there yet.
Russia.