The results are in ... Europe beats North America in instant messenger users

Results from a recent comScore Networks survey of instant messenger use in various parts of the world show that there are now more European instant messaging users than in North America. The study also shows that MSN Messenger is the most used instant messenger worldwide.

Acording to the analysis of the survey, the average number of the popualation using instant messaging programs in Europe is 49%, equivalent to 82 millions people, whereas in North America 37% of people are using instant messaging programs, about 69 million people. The survey also showed that the Latin America region is where the biggest use of instant messaging is happening with 64% of the population there using instant messaging programs.

As to the use of MSN Messenger worldwide, the survey showed that 61% of all instant message using users worldwide were using it, with it being used by 90% of users in Latin America and by over 70% of users both in Europe and the Asia Pacific region. However in North America the use of different instant messaging programs was more varied with MSN, AIM and Yahoo! Messengers each taking between 27% and 37% of users there.

However Microsoft shouldn't be thinking they are the winners of this race yet - the survey also showed that other instant messaging programs are becoming more and more popular, with Skype now being used by 14% of instant messaging users worldwide.

>> View the results of the survey at comScore