After approximately 15 years, Microsoft will officially decommission its once hugely popular service, MSN Messenger , in October. The service has seen dwindling numbers, and availability, in recent years and is slated for its finale next month.


The company began to phase out the service across the globe beginning in April 2013, Forbes reported. As of Oct. 31, though, all users will be discontinued as the final area serviced by MSN Messenger, mainland China, will be forced to permanently log out.

Users are being encouraged to change over to Skype.

That makes sense considering the hugely popular video-messaging service was purchased by Microsoft two years ago.

In 2012, Skype was boasting 300 million users. Three years prior to that, MSN Messenger had 330 million but those numbers began to drop as Skype grew in popularity.

It was only in 2005 when China was introduced by MSN Messenger, reports BBC, but it faced competition from Cinese-based services such as QQ messenger.

Late last week, Chinese users of MSN Messenger began receiving e-mails instructing them the service would be closing. That same e-mail said users could get free Skype credits if they chose to use the newer service.

MSN Messenger was introduced, as a competitor to AOL’s Instant Messenger, in 1999. As Microsoft’s service grew in popularity it added a handful of features including video calls. It was renamed to Windows Live Messenger in 2005.

source : http://techcribng.com/msn-messenger-shutting-down/