After Ali software introduced "Aliwangwang" by integrating "Tradeknow" and "Taobaowangwang", Alibaba was shown last Friday to have become one of the top three of IM providers, though the two newly released annual Internet reports from different backgrounds haven't classified it as a member in the instant messaging (IM) market.

It is reported that the online number of Aliwangwang users has exceeded a million following Tencent and MSN. According to the statistics given by the Ali software, the total number of registered users of Ali software has topped 20 million.

Although Aliwangwang ranks third relying on more than 20 million registered users in the IM market, insiders believe that it is very difficult for it to maintain this third position. China Mobile is making every effort to promote its IM software "Fetion". It has been regarded as a giant in the future no matter whether it will maintain a long-term cooperation with Tencent.

An analyst from the CCID Consulting says that users' demand of Aliwangwang is very special. The first demand of users is doing business and the second is instant communication. "In essence, Aliwangwang is a vertical IM tool," the analyst stresses.

Therefore, Wang Tao, the general manager of Ali software, stresses the users' value of IM. According to the operation data released by Ali software, each user of Aliwangwang on the average creates a daily transaction of RMB 615 which is the highest among all the IM software.  Currently, the daily transactions through Aliwangwang amount to RMB 4.3829 billion.