The new research also shows that the number of unique users of instant-messaging applications at work in the US increased by a third (34%) from 10.0 million in September 2000 to 13.4 million in September 2001. At the same time, the total number of minutes spent using instant-messaging applications at home in the US increased 48%, from 9.2 billion to 13.6 billion. The number of unique users of instant-messaging applications at home is also believed to have increased by a quarter (28%) from 42.0 million to 53.8 million.

By brand, the Jupiter findings indicate that AOL's Instant Messenger, Buddy List (within the AOL Proprietary online service) and ICQ remain the US leaders. Combined they account for over 41 million unique users in September 2001, up 21% year on year. However, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger are the fastest growing applications: MSN increased 94%, from 9.6 million users to 18.5 million over the year; Yahoo! users increased 25% from 9.5 million to 11.9 million over the same period.

Jupiter's research also shows that AOL is the leading brand in US homes as assessed by total usage minutes. These applications were used for a total of more than 9 billion minutes in September 2001, up 31% over the previous year. However, MSN and Yahoo! are estimated to have grown at a faster rate: MSN was used for 1.9 billion minutes (up 159%) and Yahoo! was used for 2.0 billion minutes (up 98%) last September.



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