IM usage stats: the decline of AIM
August 31st, 2010 by Adam KalseyLike many early IM users, I was a heavy user of AIM for a very long time. (I also had a 6 digit ICQ number, but the lack of friends on the network led to me abandoning it). The first IM platform I implemented on what eventually became the IM support in Tropo was AIM. AIM holds a special place in my heart.
Today’s Chart of the Day from Silicon Alley Insider (SAI) is Comscore’s metrics on the use of various IM networks. For the venerable AIM, it isn’t pretty. After years in the #1 spot, a sharp decline starting at the end of 2008 led SAI to title their graphic “The Death Of AOL Instant Messenger.”
Yahoo had a huge spike around the same time, but within 6 months declined back to around where they started. I’m not sure what caused the Yahoo spike, but a few things may have contributed. Yahoo 9.0 was released around that time, as was the Yahoo iPhone IM client.
Facebook and Google Talk aren’t represented on the chart. Comscore is unable to break the IM traffic out from Gmail and regular Facebook usage.
Related posts:
- Are you on Facebook? If so, you can join the Tropo conversation there…
- New Sample Tropo App – speech-driven weather forecasts in Ruby
- Customer Spotlight: Zapier
Tags: aim, IM, instant messaging, yahoo
I agree, that it is sad and not so sad to see Im decline, AOL probably should have made better software , less crashing, more support and adaptability across platforms with plug ins open source so people would not feel or need to use aim third party clients.
It is sad to see aim decline, people are more mobile on blackberries and smart phones, but with aim a person would do his or her business or studying and have aim on, it could be do not disturb, or studying with away messages, but you got the sense that somebody was online to talk to and friends would sign in and out, I doubt facebook IM and google talk are used that often, perhaps facebook could do better with its im but it did try so far, it is probably representating the decline of im and traditional PCS for some,
Its simply not practical to have multiple IMs and friends at the same time on a smartphone, rather a smartphone lets you talk to one person and maybe another but not multiples in practical sense. With a PC you can typing your word document, music, spreadsheet, etc and have 3-4 ims and send hyperlinks , files, blogs, etc in sequential order, with a smartphone you communicate but its often not the same order and timing, its more as a business reply to me within a minute or two while I am focusing on something else, the smartphone user doesn’t care or wait until friends sign on or come from away which is indication that they want to talk and have the free time and dedication to talk .