SAN FRANCISCO - The Wall Street Journal has reported that users of Microsoft's MSN Messenger and Yahoo's Messenger will now be able to communicate across the restrictions of their respective IM clients as the parent companies were on the verge of announcing such a deal.
Previously MSN users could only chat to other MSN users and Yahoo users could communicate with other Yahoo users only. The Journal says that this link-up is a direct challenge to market leader America online, which has a 56 percent user base. The market barometer said that the announcement of the deal was expected on Wednesday. If it does come through, it would mark the first time that two of the world's major online companies have entered into collaboration. Unified messaging services such as Trillian already allow users of Yahoo, MSN and AOL to log on from a single interface, but the user is required to have different accounts in each service.
This move would be targeted as AOL and Google which has recently introduced Google Talk, "Up until now, AOL has been able to pick and choose its partners, command the royalties it wants. They've moved to develop this market at their own pace.
This forces them to take a more aggressive stance," said Robert Mahowald, an analyst with research firm IDC. The move could end up benefiting both companies since their user bases are way below that of AOL. An estimated 27.3 million unique US users log on to MSN Messenger and 21.9 million for Yahoo's Messenger, according to Nielsen/NetRatings for the month of September.
AOL's share was an estimated 51.5 million unique U.S. users. "I think what's really pushing this is Microsoft's ability to see that it's long been playing cat and mouse with AIM and ICQ. Microsoft needs to stake its presence in a big way," Mahowald said.
Posted
on : Thu, 13 Oct 2005 00:35 GMT | Business News
By : Mike Lawson
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