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USERS would give up watching American Idol in order to IM with people on other services
Here's a bold statement:
"Nearly one-third of INSTANT MESSAGING USERS would give up WATCHING American Idol IN ORDER to IM with people on other services"
Of course, only Yahoo! has brass enough to make such a statement.
Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger have connected their Instant Messaging (IM) communities, forming the world's largest IM network approaching 350 million user accounts. Of course, if you own a Macintosh, you had the capabilities for several years since the introduction of iChat and iSight.
In a recent poll commissioned by Yahoo! and Windows Live and conducted by Harris Interactive(r), adult IM users in the U.S. voiced their interest in chatting with friends and family who use services other than their own. The No. 1 feature requested by users*, inter-connectivity between the two services allows Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger users to exchange instant messages with one another, view friends' online status and share select emoticons.
Some IM Users Are Willing to Forego Their Guilty Pleasures for Inter-Connectivity Feature
According to the survey, IM users not only want to IM their friends and family who use other instant messaging services, they'd also be willing to give up some of their guilty pleasures in order to do so:
* 29% said they'd be willing to give up watching American Idol
* 16% said they'd give up ice cream for one month
* 15% are willing to give up their morning cup of coffee
* 15% said they'd give up their morning paper
One-Quarter Say Connecting IM Services is the Next Best Thing Since the Creation of the Cell Phone
One in four (24%) IM users said that being able to use one IM service to connect with friends on other IM services is the next great thing since the creation of the cell phone.
* 57% of the IM users surveyed have a friend or family member on a different IM service.
* More than one-third (35%) of students (over the age of 18) use more than one IM service.
Lindsay Rules IM
When asked which celebrity they'd like to chat with- Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, Jessica Simpson, or Britney Spears, one-third of respondents chose Lindsay Lohan.
* 32% of people would choose to IM with Lindsay Lohan over pop culture icons Jessica Simpson (29%), Nicole Richie (16%), Britney Spears (13%) and Paris Hilton (10%).
That's why Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger are crowning Lindsay the "Queen of IM."
The whole survey was based on feedback from users of Yahoo! Messenger with Voice and Windows Live Messenger. This was not measured by the Harris Interactive survey.
Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Yahoo! and Microsoft between August 18 and 22, 2006 among 2,770 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region, household income and time spent online were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population.
With a pure probability sample of 2,770, one could say with a ninety-five percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- three percentage points. Sampling error for subsamples would be higher and would vary. However that does not take other sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
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