Science & Technology

ninemsn Messenger Service Becomes Australia's No.1

May 2nd, 2001

The MSN Instant Messenger, one of the most popular services ninemsn offers online Australians, has become the No.1 instant messaging service in Australia, overtaking AOL's ICQ service for the first time.

Twelve months ago in March 2000, ICQ users in Australia numbered 1.75 million with MSN Messenger users totalling 441,000. One year later, Australian MSN Messenger users number 2.064 million, and the number of people using MSN Messenger is expected to continue growing.

The latest release of data from Media Metrix shows that MSN Messenger is the single most used instant messaging service in the world with more than 29.5 million unique users worldwide in February this year.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of ninemsn, Mr Steve Vamos, the popularity of the service is a reflection of how wholeheartedly Australians are embracing the Internet as an important personal communication tool.

"Use of MSN Messenger has grown more than 200 percent worldwide in the past year, with growth of the service in Australia around 368 percent", said Mr Vamos.

"The ninemsn site is already No.1 in Australia, with over four million people visiting each month".

"Thirty seven percent of all Australian households have access to the Internet, and that number is predicted to keep on growing".

"People are using online communications more and more. Communication tools like MSN Messenger and Hotmail are driving the growth in Web-based communications".

The release of the Australian data shows that the average duration of use of the MSN Messenger service was 131 minutes per consumer during the month of March 2001.

MSN Messenger is most popular with the online age groups of teenagers and women aged 18-24, with 44 percent of both target groups using MSN Messenger.

MSN Messenger service is available in 26 languages and used in nearly every country worldwide. It is ranked number one by Media Metrix in France, Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom, as well as in Australia.