Bangkok--7 Aug--Weber Shandwick
With 10 billion messages sent everyday on Windows Live Messenger, it’s no surprise that it is the most widely used free instant messaging service in the world. And come July 2009, Microsoft celebrated the 10th anniversary of the world’s favorite messaging application.
Craig Law-Smith, Marketing Director, Online Services Group, Southeast Asia, said: “We are really happy that users around the world have embraced Messenger. It continues to be one of the favorite ways for people to stay in touch with the people who matter to them, simply because it’s just fun and easy to use. “
“In the eyes of many users, Messenger is less a product than a symbol for something they do every single day of their lives - communicate,” he said. “And with each version we put out, it gets even more awesome than before and our users see that.”
When MSN Messenger (as it was known then) 1.0 was rolled out in July 1999, it quickly gained a loyal following and user base of 2.5 million monthly active users, which snowballed to 4.5 million within six months. Today, Windows Live Messenger is available in 59 countries and 36 languages and has more than 330 million active users on the PC and on the go, with the mobile phone. In its 10th iteration, it is the platform of choice for 10 billion instant messages and 1.3 billion voice and video messages sent every day (1).
“In Thailand alone, there are currently 5.3 million Windows Live users sending over 143 million Windows Live instant messages per day (2). This is a clear testament to the product’s success and its growing popularity over the past 10 years. Given that increasing numbers of consumers can now also use Windows Live Messenger on their mobile phones, we expect to see the number of instant messages sent daily to increase even further and eventually reach and overtake the daily number of SMSes sent by Thais which currently stands at 60 million SMSes (3),” added Craig.
The 10th anniversary will be celebrated with a series of fun online initiatives, including a comic strip competition, and a Snap, Shoot, Share competition in which consumers who spot the Windows Live Messenger mascot making appearances at various high traffic locations around the island, can go online to tag their photographs in a bid to prizes.
The Evolution of Windows Live Messenger
To address the growing communications needs of IM users through the years, Microsoft added the following innovations:
The nudge was introduced with MSN Messenger 7.0 on April 7th 2005. Since then it has been even simpler for users to get the attention of their favorite chat partner.
The typing indicator (which says “XX is typing a message”) seems trivial today, but was actually a tricky problem in the early days — how could it reflect that someone was entering a message without showing every single character (and typos). The Messenger team invented the typing indicator for that purpose, and it is now used by every chat client today.
The latest Messenger features:
Personalization. Of nearly everything: Users can add a profile picture or video, display a personal scene in the chat window, update the status message with their news, add a favorite link, or add what song they’re listening to.
Integration of “What’s New” feed. With the “What’s New” feed in Messenger, users can stay in touch with the latest updates from their circle of friends at a glance, without any need to log in across multiple destinations.
Photo sharing. Photo sharing lets users share and comment on pictures while chatting. They can easily show and view pictures right in the chat window and still have ample space to chat. To start photo sharing, all a user has to do is simply drag and drop pictures into the conversation window.
Favorites. Users’ most important contacts, like speed dial for one’s Messenger contacts.
Groups. Users can create groups on the fly and chat simultaneously with up to 20 members at the same time. A group that is created in Windows Live Messenger will also be created as a Windows Live Group with all related features such as shared calendars, photos and posts.
“The Windows Live Messenger offering is significantly more robust than ever before, with the introduction of features such as the What’s New feed, which allows our users to be constantly connected and updated through our partnerships with more than 20 social networking sites, including Twitter and Facebook; SkyDrive, which gives users access to 25GB of space; and Windows Live Photo Gallery, to name a few. Today, it is easier and more fun for consumers to stay connected and to discover and share, providing for an enhanced user experience all around,” concluded Craig.
(1) Microsoft internal analysis, May 2009
(2) Based on May data from Microsoft internal data
(3) Based on March data from IDA Singapore
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
For more information and interview requests, press only:
Onanong Pratakphiriya / Bhawat Anuwong
Weber Shandwick
Tel.: 0.2343.6000
Fax: 0.2343.6003
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]