Microsoft's tie up with Facebook has apparently been a roaring success, with the company claiming that 2.8 billion minutes of Facebook Chat is now coming through Messenger, and 75 million more customers are now able to take advantage of the service.
Microsoft had announced the 1.5 billion minute landmark back in November, after launching the service in August 2010, but the collaboration has continued to grow and is now closing in on 3 billion minutes a month.
The service has now been rolled out to more messenger clients – 75 million of them to be precise – and should now be available 'wherever Facebook is available'.
75 per cent
"The number of Messenger customers who have connected Messenger to Facebook has grown over 75% to nearly 18 million people," blogged Microsoft's Piero Sierra.
"The addition of these new connections has nearly doubled the number of chat sessions between Messenger and Facebook to about 440 million, powering more than 2.8 billion minutes of Facebook chat.
"We expect even more progress with the availability of Facebook chat from Messenger to the remaining countries we're releasing this feature to today."
YouTube, LinkedIn, MySpace
Other Live services tie-ups from Microsoft – as it embraces the open world – include YouTube, LinkedIn and MySpace.
"We've been working to build partnerships with Messenger that help customers connect to their friends across their different social networks, added Sierra.
"The number of connections Messenger customers are making to LinkedIn has more than doubled since our last update. Meanwhile, MySpace and YouTube connections have grown nearly 50 per cent to remain among the top services among more than 75 great services that customers are connecting to Windows Live."
