In the last few months, AOL prevented its users from accessing competing messengers, including that of Israeli company Odigo. The examination will be part of the procedure required for approving AOL's merger with Time Warner.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into the extent of America Online's dominance of the instant messaging market. The examination is part of the procedure required for approving the Time Warner acquisition deal, "The Wall Street Journal" reported today.
According to the newspaper, FTC officials requested relevant documents and set meetings with representatives of AOL and of its competitors. AOL controls 90% of the 100 million-user market. The size of the market is a function of products' ability to convey messages instantly, unlike e-mail. Although e-mail is the most popular Internet application, it does not enable instance bi-directional communication.
AOL's dominance is largely based on the Israeli company that developed the ICQ software, Mirabilis, which AOL bought two years ago. AOL tends to block users of competing software from accessing its subscriber base. This has given rise to conflicts between AOL and Microsoft, and recently also between AOL and Israeli company Odigo, which has developed a similar product.
Odigo yesterday announced it had restored interoperability with AOL's AIM instant messenger.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 14 June, 2000