When Windows Live Essentials 2011 launched back in October, including Windows Live Messenger with Facebook Connect. The partnership paid off very well for both Microsoft and Facebook, as Windows Live Messenger had become the second most popular application behind Farmville on a daily basis on Facebook, logging 1.5 Billion minutes of chat within the first month, as we reported back in November.
Since then, The Windows Blog, Inside Windows Live Team, is now reporting that the number of Messenger users who have connected Messenger to Facebook has grown over 75% to nearly 18 million people. The addition of these new connections has nearly doubled the number of chat sessions between Messenger and Facebook to about 440 million, powering more than 2.8 billion minutes of Facebook chat.
But it isn't just Facebook, Piero Sierra, Group Program Manager, Windows Live Messenger & Mail, for Microsoft notes:
The number of connections Messenger customers are making to LinkedIn has more than doubled since our last update. Meanwhile, MySpace and YouTube connections have grown nearly 50% to remain among the top services among more than 75 great services that customers are connecting to Windows Live.
Furthermore, Sierra also announced an expansion in the service:
We’re excited to announce today that Facebook chat is now available to over 75 million more Messenger customers worldwide, wherever Facebook is available.
The Facebook chat service has already started rolling out to new customers yesterday evening, so those who previously did not have this option are invited to upgrade to the latest Live Messenger, or enable it as shown here.
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