ICQ Instant Messenger Sees An Increase In Users For The First Time

We’re not sure how many of you guys remember, but back in the day, there was an instant messaging program by the name of ICQ. The messenger granted users identification numbers in which they could use to identify themselves and search for other users, and it made that distinct “uh-oh!” sound when a message was received.

Now in case you didn’t know, ICQ is still alive and well as it was bought over by Russian billionaire, Alisher Usamanov who owns Mail.ru Group back in 2010. You’re probably wondering, why would anyone buy an outdated messenger app? Well apparently there was still a demand for the service over in Russia, and it seems that according to a recent report from Bloomberg, usage of ICQ has actually seen an increase.

This is the first time the app has seen a usage increase since it was bought over. Back in 2010 at the time of its sale, it had about 42 million active users, but that number quickly dropped to 11 million in 2013. However recently Mail.ru has seen a rise in 1 million users in a matter of a week, most of them from Brazil.

The number of users who downloaded the app allowed it to shoot up the charts of the iTunes App Store in Brazil, Uruguay, and is amongst the top five apps in Argentina. Given that the app is still relatively unknown, at least amongst giants such as WhatsApp, Skype, and Viber, we wonder if there is room to grow, or perhaps we could all be pleasantly surprised if it were to turn out to be the next WeChat. What do you guys think?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Apps, icq