11 April 2006

Nearly 50 per cent of Europeans who regularly go online have used instant messaging (IM), suggests new research.

This surpasses the proportion of IM users in North America, where only 37 per cent of the online population access the web-based application.

However, according to statistics complied by the digital research firm ComScore, Latin America beats off all competition with 64 per cent of its online population chatting to each other via IM.

Over half the IM users across the world opt to use MSN Messenger with 90 per cent of IM fans in Latin America opting for the brand and 70 per cent of IM communities in Europe or Asia Pacific.

However, there is far more competition between messaging brands in the US, with MSN only having between 27 and 37 per cent of the pool of IM users, having to battle it out with other IM giants AOL/Aim and Yahoo Messenger.

Yet ComScore also predicts that the competition could get even fiercer with more IM brands fighting it out for a place in the US and worldwide market.

© Adfero Ltd

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