Roughly 85 percent of all North American companies use IM, according to a recent report by market research firm Radicati Group. Some researchers even predict it will surpass email as the primary way people interact electronically by the end of this year-- both professionally and socially. According to comScore Networks, MSN Messenger is now ranked as the most-used client, with 61 percent of the worldwide market. MSN Messenger has a strong hold over the market thanks to its 90 percent reach in Latin America and 70 percent in Europe and Asian Pacific markets. Microsoft’s IM client is still neck and neck with AOL Instant Messenger in the United States, with Yahoo! Messenger trailing right behind.
MSN Messenger has proven popular because it offers a wide variety of features-- you can chat online via text, voice or video in real time and also send files, photos, play games and personalize display pictures.
In addition to Outlook and Hotmail, enhanced versions of both -- Outlook Live and Hotmail Plus -- are also offered on MSN. Outlook Live allows users to locate and manage multiple email inboxes, calendars and contacts; users can also search and organize messages across accounts. Hotmail Plus offers a 2 GB inbox, attachment capacity up to 20 MB per email, smart junk email filters and virus scanning/cleaning.
Other players include:
Email: Yahoo Mail, Netscape Mail, Gmail IM, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk
What this could mean for marketers:
As more communications is conducted online -- both email and IM -- marketers leveraging MSN will find increased opportunities to learn even more about what products and services users want. MSN, obviously, would prefer that users rely on them for everything-- IM, email, search, news, et cetera.
MSN plans to support Windows Live Mail through ad-funding and have begun beta testing house ads, and recently began testing some external ads in Windows Live Mail in the U.S. markets only.
With MSN Messenger advertisers have the opportunity to connect to consumers through theme packs, often complete with buddy icons, messenger backdrops and information about the brand. There are a number of other options that are available for creative marketers to reach consumers.
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