[speeder]

Icq is very popular on some countries, for example Russia.

There is a interesting phenomenon with IMs in that they tend to have popularity based on geographical locations and language borders, despite being on Internet.

Examples: in russia Icq is king. Brazil had Icq until MSN Messenger showed up, Icq tried and failed to get it back, gave up, then Microsoft became stupid and closed MSN Messenger, now the leader is Facebook messaging and whatsapp. Last I checked in us people used aim and yahoo clients.

Gmail messenger was a popular second place in many countries until Google killed it in favour of hangouts, now for text people use Facebook and for video they use Skype, that was, and kept their leading position.

In China the thing is Baidu client.

In Africa there is some messenger clients tied to local isps and phone companies.