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To: Reginald Middleton who wrote (23709)	12/1/1999 6:32:00 PM
From: Harvey Allen	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 24154

AOL's ICQ: Can Instant Chat Coexist with Internet Commerce? America Online hit the Internet jackpot in June, 1998, when it bought Tel Aviv-based Mirablis Ltd. Sure, AOL spent a rich $287 million for a company that wasn't making any money. But it got a healthy Net lode in return: Mirabilis' wildly successful instant messaging software known as ICQ. For those not fanatically into Net culture, ICQ has an passionate global following among young techies who have long looked down their noses at AOL. Best of all, ICQ's use has been growing exponentially. Now, AOL is ready to try to turn this global Web phenomenon into gold. On Dec. 1, the company announced that Mirabilis' ICQ software (which stands for "I seek you") surpassed 50 million registered users, up from 12 million when AOL bought it. Next, AOL will start peddling e-commerce to ICQ's Net-heads. And early next year, upgrades of ICQ will include content channels, more e-commerce, advertising alerts, and new offerings such as Internet telephony from partner Net2Phone. "It's rare to reach this large a market, and rarer still to get a very, very global audience," says Donn Davis, chief operating officer of AOL's Interactive Properties. businessweek.com