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SUMMARY
After having enjoyed spectacular development in the consumer internet market,
instant messaging (IM) is now taking hold as a key communication service in
other markets as well (business, mobile).
IM is changing from a stand alone application per se into a multimedia hub
- A killer app on the web, wildly popular amongst the youngest users
- Continually enhanced communication and personalisation services
- Strong interest from some ISPs as a communication hub (VoIP,
webconferencing...)
- But VoIP is posing a limited threat to IM
Fixed IM is a strategic tool and so attracting new players
- A profitable business model impeding attempts of interoperability
developments
- A market dominated and locked down by a handful of global portals (AOL,
MSN, Yahoo!) and by local players in Asia (QQ, NateOn, etc...)
- A host of new entrants, both large portals (Google), communities and ISPs
Mobile IM poised to take off
- The first successful services in South Korea and the United States
- Failures in Europe
- Growth via necessary relationships with fixed IM portals
- Major opportunities to boost traffic and drive migration to unlimited data
flat rates
IM as a reference collaboration tool for businesses
- A market structure already in line with professional software practices
- Integrating the presence of other collaborative tools and vertical
applications
- Developing into a convergent and contextual communications interface (PC,
fixed, mobile, ...)
Close-up on markets and usage
Players
- AOL
- BT
- China Telecom
- Ericsson
- Google
- IBM
- IM Logic
- Jabber
- KTF
- Microsoft
- Nokia
- Novell
- O2
- Orange
- Reuters
- RIM
- SBC
- SK Telecom
- Skype
- Sun
- Tencent (QQ)
- Tiscali
- T-Online
- Vodafone
- Wanadoo
- Verizon Wireless
- Yahoo!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 IM OVERVIEW
- Definition
- Functionalities and features
- The club effect
- Client-server model
- Hybrid peer-to-peer model
- Standardisation and interoperability
2 CONSUMER INTERNET IM
- Usage and behaviour patterns
- The French market
- The US market, with a close-up on teenagers
- The South Korean market
- Penetration rate, breakdown by age group, functions used
- Leading players and the providers' strategic positioning
- Main features (services, price)
- Interoperability of consumer IM systems
- Singularities of the Asian market (NateOn, QQ)
- IM offered by the leading portals
- Business model
- Audience
- Strategy
- Technical evolutions
- Analysis conducted for each of the following key players:
- AOL (AIM, ICQ)
- Microsoft (MSN)
- Yahoo!
- ISPs and IM
- ISPs' IM strategies: proprietary vs. external product
- The Wanadoo/Voila Messager case
- The BT/Yahoo case
- BT
- China Telecom
- Deutsche Telekom
- France Telecom
- SBC
- SK Telecom
- Tiscali
- Verizon
- New entrants
- Skype
- Google
- Community portals
- Challenges and future developments
- Integration with the web and other media
- Fixed interoperability
- The portal war
- Voice over IP and its impact on IM
3 BUSINESS IM
- Market overview
- IM use in businesses
- Implementing IM at the office
- Competition landscape
- Consumer portals
- Microsoft
- IBM
- Jabber and open source
- Groupware vendors
- Sector-specific solutions
- Mobile solutions
- Challenges and future developments
- Implementing IM
- Pervasiveness of presence
- Mobility
- Contextualisation
4 MOBILE IM
- Technical aspects of the fixed to mobile transition
- SMS-based solutions
- IMPS protocol
- Message streams
- Push to Talk
- The offers' features
- Usage and behaviour patterns
- Level of interest in France
- First feedback from the United States
- Strategies of the mobile ecosystem's players
- Portals' solutions
- Operators' dedicated solutions
- Equipment manufacturers' solutions
- Specialised publishers' solutions
- Challenges and future developments
- Growth of mobile IM
- Interoperability
- Business models
- New services
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