• by Masha Geller , May 9, 2003

What are American college students using the web for? With nearly 10 million active users in March 2003, the U.S. university Internet audience is both sizable and influential. They definitely prefer the web to the campus library, and MP3s to CDs, but their favorite online tool, by far, is instant messenger (which should warm the hearts of Wall Street Journal execs who yesterday partnered with AOL to deliver their content through AIM).

According to the latest comScore data release, whether communicating with fellow students across the dormitory hall or friends and family at home, Instant Messengers are hugely popular among university students. In fact, the Instant Messenger category reached nearly 7 million university Internet users - 70% of the total university Internet population in March (compared to 47 and 42% for home and work locations). For advertisers and agencies deciding whether to invest in campaigns delivered via instant messaging systems, the university audience clearly represents a ready base of target consumers.

An analysis of specific Instant Messenger services reveals that while all Instant Messengers are disproportionately popular among university Internet users, AOL Time Warner Instant Messaging (which includes both the AOL AIM and subscriber-based applications and sites) leads in adoption among university Internet users. In fact, AOL Time Warner Instant Messaging alone reaches 61% of the university Internet population. And while Trillian, which allows users to communicate across all major instant messenger platforms, is used by only 1.3% of this audience, university users account for more than 12% of the total Trillian user base (compared to 7% for the total Internet).

comScore data also revealed that many university Internet users use multiple Instant Messenger services. In fact, approximately 28% of AOL Time Warner Instant Messaging users also used either MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger or both.

As a complete non sequitur to all this data, here's something to talk about at your weekend dinner partly: The Week magazine reports that it was a good week for "Staying in touch, when Microsoft announced plans for the world's first Internet-equipped Porta Potti. The iLoo, available this summer at British music festivals, will allow people to surf the Web while on the john." Discuss.

Happy Mother's Day!