Member Article

AIM Shutting Down after 20 Years- postop of a pioneer

After 20 years on the market, many of them as a pioneer and leader, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) will cease operating on December 15th. Begun in the days when an internet connection required dial up service and a large desktop computer, AIM managed to hang on well into the mobile messaging era.

While AIM users will surely be shocked by this news, many others will wonder how the once giant IM program was able to hold on for so long. Over its two decades on the market AIM went from a leading role to much reduced relevance through a series of poor decisions and missed opportunities. As with every such case, there are lessons to be learned from the AIM experience which are important for the future of the industry.

In order to better understand the implications of AIM’s closure, it’s important to reflect on the AIM journey and analyze some of its strengths and shortcomings. Ultimately, this will help provide an answer to the question of “what comes next?” and will proved valuable lessons for the messaging market going forward. The answers to this questions are important for the messaging industry as a whole, as well as the millions of current users that have remained loyal to AIM over the years.

Security Concerns

Throughout its two decade history, AIM has had serious security concerns. From vulnerability to external attacks through Trojan horses and viruses, to a lack of full data encryption, AIM was unable to provide users with a secure experience. AIM isn’t unique in this regard, with many messaging apps providing subpar cybersecurity protections to this day despite the ever increasing importance of the issue. The difference is that when taken together with other challenges and changing user preferences, these concerns contributed to AIM’s decline.

It’s too late for AIM to do anything about cybersecurity, but users can certainly migrate to a messaging client that provides a broad range of protections. This should include malware protections as well as end to end data encryption, such as Brosix, a messaging client that provides a broad range of protections for both individual and business clients on its private team networks. The broader lesson to take away from this is that messengers need to make cybersecurity a central aspect of their service, or run the risk of a shrinking user base.

Mobile Messaging

Arguably one of the biggest challenges AIM faced was when smartphones became widespread and users began to move towards mobile messaging. The slow reaction on AIM’s part was one of the driving reasons for users to switch messenger programs. The mobile messaging trend is one that continues to grow, particularly given the boom in smartphone use, and the most successful messengers have taken this lesson to heart.

However, the most successful companies have been focusing on not just one type of messaging, but rather a holistic cross platform approach. Even WhatsApp, the current mobile messaging giant, has introduced web and desktop based clients in the past two years. This experience shows that the broader the range of services messengers provide, the more competitive they will be in the long run.

Features, features, features

The ability to innovate and constantly improve the range of features offered to customers is crucial for any messaging client. The current market leaders gained their positions by offering something new and exciting to customers, such as WhatsApp’s mobile messaging and Skype’s free peer to peer

calls. While AIM was in and of itself an innovation when it first appeared two decades ago, since then it has been surpassed many times over by software that offered newer and better features. There’s a lesson here too- keep breaking ground or be surpassed.

Parting Words

As AIM passes into the annals of technology history there are many lessons that can be learned from its 20 years of operations. Struggling to adapt to current market trends, failing to address security issues and lacking in innovation are problems that many companies have and will continue to face. Some of them have already addressed them head on and are ready to provide current AIM users with good alternatives to their previously preferred messenger. As the industry continues to grow and develop, it’s crucial that businesses not lose sight of these lessons.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Nikola Baldikov .