AOL launches biz services via IM

NEW YORK: America Online, the world's largest Internet service provider, said it had launched a service that lets users conduct audio conference calls and share online presentations over its popular instant messaging service.

AOL, a division of the world's No. 1 media company Time Warner Inc., is hoping the new service, AIM Business Services, will be a showcase of how the largely free service can also be a communications hub, AOL executives said.

"We're making (AOL Instant Messenger) a new front door for communications services," said Ed Fish, senior vice president of AOL's Desktop Messaging. "We think it's becoming the new phone."

AOL said it signed deals with San Jose, California-based WebEx Communications Inc. and Burlington, Massachusetts-based Lightbridge Inc. to enable the new features.

WebEx's software lets computer users share video and software applications such as Microsoft Office and Adobe PhotoShop in real time over the Web.

Lightbridge will provide the telephone conferencing ability to AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).

The service will be available to AIM's 36 million active users, who send about 2 billion messages a day.

The audio conferencing service costs about 15 cents a minute per user. The presentation aspect of the service will cost an additional 33 cents a minute per user.

Analysts estimate about 14 million people use AIM at work.

"The idea of being able to escalate an instant messaging session to an audio conference is new," said Andy Nilssen, an analyst at Wainhouse Research. "We've been waiting for it and there's good demand for it."

© Reuters