RIP MSN Messenger

Two months later, Microsoft will finally stop supporting the 15-year-old Windows Live Messenger (MSN Messenger) messaging service.

In fact, the company announced the transition of all users from Windows Live to Skype back in 2012, but China remained the last bastion of this program. Until recently.

Microsoft began to warn Chinese Windows Live Messenger users of the imminent disconnection of the service from Thursday. They were notified that it was necessary to switch to Skype before October 31. To everyone who follows the advice, Microsoft promised to give out a bonus in the form of free Skype calls.



The MSN Messenger chat service was launched in 1999 as an alternative to AOL from AOL. Later, the functions of transferring photos, video calls and games were added to it. But that did not save him.

In the early 2000s, for many people, MSN Messenger became an important channel of communication, mainly with foreign users (for example, freelance customers). The service was very popular in the USA, and ICQ dominated in our area.

Even in 2009, the Windows Live Messenger audience totaled 330 million active users. But by this time, most of them were from China. But even in China, the Windows Live Messenger program has in recent years hopelessly lost competition to the QQ messenger from local developers.

The audience was gradually declining, while the number of Skype users grew to 300 million in 2012. Microsoft's Skype purchase of $ 8.5 billion in 2012 passed the final death sentence to the legendary Windows Live Messenger.

Rest in peace, our old friend!