Cnet News.com has reported yet another dustup in the ongoing instant messaging (IM) wars waged between and among the major portals (Yahoo, MSN, AOL) and emerging technology insurgents attempting to mine the potential opportunity to connect instant messaging users across these closed or proprietary networks.
In this current skirmish, Yahoo has counterattacked against upstart Cerulean Studios and its Trillian software effectively locking them out the Yahoo network by changing the IM protocols, a page from the Microsoft play book.
As I indicated in part 3 of my Microsoft blog, the ability to lock out competitive encroachments is an important characteristic of an asymmetric marketer seeking to defend and extend a customer lock-in. In this case, Yahoo took the moral high ground citing 'spim' (spam instant messaging) as its motivation in taking the steps it did against Cerulean. Needless to say, Cerulean counter-attacked by issuing a patch to get around the lock-out.
Stay tuned because these moves highlight an ongoing war by Yahoo, MSN and AOL who all effectively run closed community networks and seek to defend their installed base of IM users. But it's fun to watch both sides in this skirmish engage in asymmetric marketing strategy and tactics.
Cerulean, for its part, is engaging in a classic ecosystem attachment strategy by attempting to infiltrate the installed base of Yahoo users, while also practing a general overlap strategy that says to IM users, 'We can liberate you from the closed networks.'
If history is any indicator, the big three portals will try to figure out a way to unite to pre-empt the insurgents, as they are doing in the war on the spammers. But the wild card is the enterprise, which needs to adopt IM and will eventually not submit to be constrained by duelling portal standards.
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