Research from Jupiter MMR shows that business users are fast
catching on to instant messaging over the Internet.
Among the three leading brands of instant messenger - America
Online's AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Microsoft's MSN Messenger and
Yahoo's Yahoo Messenger - business use was up 110% in the US over
the past year, from 2.3 billion minutes in September 2000, to 4.9
billion minutes in September 2001, according to the research
firm.
Instant messaging has seen explosive growth in the workplace, with
over 13.4 million unique users counted in September 2001.
"A lot of companies will expect most of their staff to have either
AOL or MSN, so they can communicate with colleagues," said Jupiter
analyst Dan Stevenson. "But equally, people are using them for
communicating with friends, either in the office, or
outside."
Many office users install more than one instant messenger to get
around the fact that, so far, the leading services are not
compatible, Stevenson said. Ironically, AOL's refusal to co-operate
with its arch rival Microsoft is driving growth among competitors,
he said.
"[AOL is] continuing to block competing messaging technology, so
it's giving the initiative to users to download and use the other
services."
Despite the rapid growth of instant messaging in the workplace,
business users are still far outnumbered by home instant-messaging
enthusiasts, according to the Jupiter research. Home users
increased by 28%, from 42 million in September 2000 to 53.8 million
in September 2001.
In the workplace, as at home, AIM is the leading instant-messaging
brand, but its competitors are gaining ground, Jupiter reported.
AOL counted 8.8 million unique business users in September 2001,
while MSN had 4.8 million users and Yahoo had 3.4 million users.