Microsoft instant messaging woos youth segment

NEW YORK: Microsoft Corp. unveiled a test version this week of threedegrees -- an instant messaging product aimed at 13- to 24-year-olds that lets them hang out online together -- as part of the software company's efforts to target the set that grew up with the web.

Threedegrees is the first application from Microsoft's "NetGen" group, which has been working for about 18 months to find what services will ring truest with the young people who have "internalized the Internet."

"Understanding that consumer set, because it is growing and growing quickly, is incredibly important to us for the future of the company," said Tammy Savage, NetGen group manager, in a phone interview.

Threedegrees will let Web surfers invite friends to form a group of up to 10 online, represented on the computer desktop with an icon. Once members are online, they can send an animated hello bundled with sound -- in the form of lips blowing a kiss -- that will be seen by other group members that are on their computers, whether working on a paper or surfing the Web.

Together, they can share pictures, chat or start a music mix session, which lets users put on different music and lets the entire group listen to their selections. The idea is to mirror what these users do when hanging out together offline.

"What threedegrees does is create my own personal community and that's very powerful. What we have got here right now is a nice platform that takes IM to the next level in terms of social interaction," said Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg.

Savage said among NetGen's findings is that these users want the sense that they are always connected to their friends. "Right now what you are seeing from us is the tip of the iceberg," Savage added. "We want to get this out in terms of feedback and incorporate the learning because the experience is fairly different than what is available today."

Microsoft believes many of the services from the NetGen group will appeal to more than just teens and young adults and could be put to broader uses, by information technology managers for example.

NetGen has used several "untraditional" means for research, including its own version of the MTV cable television network's "Real World" which puts a dozen students in a house for three weeks and then watches them around the clock to understand their behavior.

Currently, there are many real-time messaging services, including AIM and ICQ from market leader America Online, which has long had a heavy teen-following for its instant messaging products; AOL is a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc. But Gartenberg said these other services do not let users convene by virtue of being online; rather they have to gather together elsewhere, such as in a chat room.

"There's a peer to peer aspect to this," Gartenberg said of threedegrees. At the moment, Savage said Microsoft has left its options for a business model for threedegrees "wide open."

"Our goal right now is to just get it in the customers' hands. The power of the application is using it with your friends, so we had to have a public beta so (people) can use it, so they can experience it and provide feedback," Savage said.

© Reuters