The Business of Instant Messaging

willll writes "The Washington Post is running a story about how AOL plans to make money from Instant Messaging, one of the few successes in recent times for AOL. This article includes plans for corporate versions of AIM as well as discussion on some of the state on instant messaging."

Comments

Taxes

[kaden]

Perhaps they could charge by the lol or 'omg u 2' used on their services? Make money and maybe even improve the interweb a little at the same time.

Instant messaging is dead.

[callipygian-showsyst]

SMS killed it. It's just a matter of time. (Like the fact that Blockbuster and Kodak are dead.)

IM in business?

[NineNine]

Is it just me, or does IM of an kind seem to be a 13-year-old-girl thing? I couldn't imagine using IM in a company. This just seems completely bizarre.

But they still need...

[IronTek]

Amongst other things, AIM still needs some sort of Quality of Service guarentees thrown into the protocol...thus saving conversations like,

Tech Peon: Sorry boss, I didn't get the IM informing me I've been laid off due to the tech downturn.

CEODude: But I sent it via AIM to you.

Tech Peon: Ah...putting all our faith into AIM streamlining operations, are we?

...watch...it'll happen!

A typical IM conversation at work...

[AnimeFreak]

Worker 1: so i hear that layoffs are coming :(
Worker 2: i am getting a promotion
Worker 1: STFU
Worker 1: i have been told i am going to get nailed
Worker 2: HAHAHAHA
Worker 2: u r so screwed man

Or...

Boss: you're fired! :P
Worker 1: no, i quit!
*** Worker 1 signs off
(Boss, thinking: "Umm, he didn't catch my ":P", did he?")

But, in any case, how subject would this IM service be to abuse?

Right

[Mmmrky]

If only AOL expanded their instant messenger service. Sure you can type and they can type back, but what if you could actually hear the person you were chatting with? Maybe this could even be done in "Real Time." We could come up with a device so you could walk around the room and talk at the same time without tricky networking setup. We could take everyone's name and give it a number and put them in a big book so that if you wanted to chat with someone and didn't know their number you could look it up. It would even have their address!

Think of the possibilities!

Re:Right

[limbostar]

The 'woosh' sound you just heard was the joke going right over your head. Thank god you're not taller or it may have hit you.

Re:Right

[KUHurdler]

If only AOL expanded their instant messenger service. Sure you can type and they can type back, but what if you could actually hear the person you were chatting with? Maybe this could even be done in "Real Time." We could come up with a device so you could walk around the room and talk at the same time without tricky networking setup. We could take everyone's name and give it a number and put them in a big book so that if you wanted to chat with someone and didn't know their number you could look it up. It would even have their address!


Nah, That would never work

key sentence....

[tx_mgm]

from the article:

...while it has no plans to charge consumers for the existing service...

phew, alright then. i stopped reading there as that is all i was concerned with. glad they put it close to the beginning, heh. i thought for sure they were about to make ICQ or one of their competetors the NEW number 1 instant messaging program. glad to hear i won't be having to inform my friends of a new screenname on another service.
as soon as AOL starts charging for instant messenger, I (and probably the rest of the world) will move on.

Overheard at AOL boardroom

[Anonymous Coward]

"We transported 400 billion instant messages last year and didn't even get a lousy t-shirt."

Re:How about IM in IDEs?

[1nv4d3r]

Allow a simple parody. Is this the scenario you're trying to avoid:

I'm working an Foo.java and have a question about a line of code. I use cvs annotate to determine that Bob last modified it. I turn my head to the left and say "Bob, I need help with Foo.java," which sends him a message that instantly conveys that I would like to collaborate on Foo.java. Bob accepts the collaboration and walks 4 feet over to my cube. He can see my version of the code right on my screen. At this point we can both edit the file, ask questions about the code, and even share the mouse. (Bob not only reads what I type, but SEES what I am referring to).

It's a pipe dream, but man it would be cool if programmers had social skills.

Every day I see engineers go to great lengths to avoid a simple 'hello' to each other in the hallway. They send email to people who are close enough to hear it being typed. I used to be that way but am slowly pulling out of it.

Re:How about IM in IDEs?

[SN74S181]

You mean an Emacs lisp module for AIM?

heh

Sheesh, it's easy to make money with AIM!

[Fantastic Lad]

In 4 easy steps. Follow along if you will. . .

1. Give the service away for free to everybody, promote its use in companies, etc., so that, after a couple of years, "Nobody Can Live Without It."

2. Create an agreement with the other major instant message service providers to implement a pay-per-use system each either at the same time or in quick succession, so that there is no viable competition. This way, each of the big parties makes money and there is nobody for the feeble consumer to turn to. --Sure, this is only pseudo legal, (cartels?), but that's never stopped anybody before. And anyway, you're probably a terrorist.

3. Buy up the competition, bribe service providers so as to ensure low quality, irritating and unreliable service on free systems, and create the illusion that it costs billions of dollars to maintain the internet. Public relate, indirectly advertise, play the 'bleak ecconomic outlook' for all it's worth, and generally tenderize the public like a side of beef so that they'll willingly shell out for something which could easily be as free as water were it not for the creative greedy and their ilk. (And heck, we're paying through the nose for water these days, a vital commodity, and people bought that one, so how tough will it be to sell them on a frivolous toy like AIM?)

--And AOL facing an uncertain financial future? Suuuure they are. Let's do the math:

35 million AOL users x $23.90 a month = $836,500,000 Every Goddamned Month

My calculator ran out of available zeros and gave me an error when I tried to multiply the above by 12, prompting me to institute Lad's Law #3: "A company which produces an over-run error when trying to calculate yearly grosses deserves no sympathy whatsoever."

I can't believe that stupid article had the audacity to claim financial hard times for AOL. The only reason such could be the case is one of three things; Corruption, Stupidity, or Both.

4. Ridicule, harrase and Kill anybody who gets in the way.

Voila! Free money!

It's not that nobody's figured out how to make money off the internet, it's that only a the top layer of assholes have, and everybody else is just chump-fodder for the show.

But then nobody has ever accused AOLers of being particularly bright, have they?

-Fantastic Lad

The ultimate instant messaging

[DaCool42]

I have only one thing to say:

$ write user

Re:More than 1.1 billion IMs are sent every day

[fucksl4shd0t]

Getting a little defensive, are we?

That said, I use IM to fight with my dad, and I'm just under the 30 mark. :)