IM Clients question
Dare has a post up on a cross-protocol, browser based IM client (Meebo), and the liklihood that they'll be acquired. That raised a question in my mind though - and it's not meant to be a nasty question - I'm honestly curious. What do MS, Yahoo, and AOL get out of their IM clients? I mostly use AIM, but that has to do with which network most of the people I deal with are on. I don't use AOL for anything else, and I haven't paid them for anything, ever. At one point I used MSN as a backup for dialup access, but I gave that up eons ago too, as I started traveling less, and hotels started having broadband access.
So honest question - what actual benefit are these guys seeing from their IM networks?
Comments
eyeballs
[ anonymous] December 17, 2005 19:53:50.153
Comment by anonymous
I think it's all about eyeballs. Sure, some of us use non-adware clients, but most people use the standard client. It's a connection to my eyes and awareness. If I use AIM, I'm more likely to use another AOL service (so the thinking goes). I don't know what their ad rates are.
The problem with these services is finding people to chat with. I have two communities, a few at AOL, and a few at MSN, mostly centered around different teams I've worked with. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see much growth in the arena. Google Talk was very much a me-too thing.