Re:AOL sell ICQ to DST (Russia)
by ruslan on Wednesday April 28, 2010 @09:41AM
(#1301490)
There's a great and unstoppable tendency in Russia to switch to Jabber, so I wonder why would someone want to invest huge pile of money into almost dead service based on a centuary old technology? Either investors are dumb or there's some grassroot movement involved.
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I'd guess the latter as DST doesn't seem to be dumb. They are heavily invested in Facebook, Zynga, Groupon and others. DST investors include Goldman Sachs and Tencent. They have been doing a lot of deals lately partly because they offer cash and will purchase employee stock. Both are nice when IPOs are so rare.
I knew ICQ was old, but century old technology? Unless it started out as a telegraph service I think you're confused.
I think he/she was exaggerating.
Everyone I know uses ICQ. (I’m in Germany.) They might also use Skype but that is by no means a given. It’s a truly dreadful situation. I wish it were different but it isn’t.
There's a great and unstoppable tendency in Russia to switch to Jabber
Are you use you're not talking about geeks having an unstoppable tendency in Russia to switch to Jabber? Isn't the second most popular IM Mail.ru Agent, which is also owned by DST?
It may be unstoppable in the long run but it's far from prevailing. ICQ is in no danger of extinction in the coming 5-7 years for sure, especially with parters like Yandex and Rambler. And, well, network effects, you know. Most normal* web-connected people use it in Russia, as you know.
* normal means not IT people
Uh, really? NOBODY I know in Russia/former Soviet Union uses Jabber. Everybody uses ICQ and some use Skype.
Ya, really. I'm in Russia, I'm on jabber since forever, ditched ICQ completely 2 or 3 years ago -- I just don't need it anymore, almost everybody I know is on jabber already.
(admittedly, quitting Skype is noticeably harder).