As part of the marketing push for the new ("wave 4") Windows Live Essentials, Microsoft has provided some interesting facts and figures that justify, I suppose, the feature push here. They are:
Worldwide, Messenger alone has 9 percent of total Internet minutes, compared to Facebook with 7.4 percent. (Source: comScore WW February 2010)
60 percent of PC users share photos weekly and 25 percent edit and share videos.
50 percent of photos and 80 percent of videos taken don't get shared because it's too hard to do. People want advanced capabilities for managing and creating photos and videos, plus many options for sharing them. However, most won't learn a new, complicated program.
Windows Live Messenger is the most popular IM service in the world, with more than 330 million active accounts worldwide. And Windows Live Messenger has a passionate worldwide user base that has continued to grow strongly.
Digital photos and videos have gone mainstream. Today, more than 70 percent of consumers own a point and shoot digital camera.
In the US, 10 billion more photos will be taken in 2010 than in 2007, rising to nearly 57 billion photos.
There are more than 500 million active Windows Live IDs worldwide.
