Over the same period, Microsoft's MSN Messenger climbed from 22 million to 23 million combined unique users and Web site visitations, ComScore said.
Those numbers are down from January, when 62 million unique users accessed AOL's Web-based and proprietary AIM services, and 8 million logged on to ICQ. Combined users accessing AOL's network from the Web and its proprietary online service hit 59.7 million in March, with an additional 6.2 million users on its ICQ network, ComScore reported. Until recently, AOL executives discredited video IM's consumer appeal and prided themselves on keeping IM free from the bells and whistles adopted by competitors such as Yahoo.ĪOL far outstrips competitors in sheer number of IM users, but its market share appears to be slipping, according to data provided by Internet traffic measurement company ComScore Media Metrix. The effects are being felt even in its IM business, where the company's ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) services have dominated for years.ĪOL's test marks a significant reversal for the company on the IM development front. The decision to explore new features for IM comes amid broad disarray at AOL Time Warner's AOL division, which is seeking to revamp its service to stem defections to high-speed Net providers and lower-priced dial-up services while fending off investigations of its accounting practices. "Although video over IM has yet to take off with a mass-market audience, we have seen it begin to catch on among early adopters as other services offer it as a feature." "What we are seeking to do with this record and forward video feature is to test its adoption and popularity with our audience and determine its potential as a possible feature within a future AOL client," AOL spokesman Derrick Mains said in an e-mail. Recipients play back the video as a downloaded file, not as a live stream.
The feature, dubbed "record and forward," lets people record video through a Webcam and send the file to another AOL IM user via a peer-to-peer connection.
America Online is warming up to instant messaging video features that it once dismissed as irrelevant, in the latest sign that the company is playing catch-up to rivals in a key communications technology that it pioneered.ĪOL on Monday confirmed that it has begun testing a feature that lets subscribers swap video clips over its instant messaging software.
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