OMG! Happy 10th birthday, Windows Live Messenger!

Yep, believe it or not, Windows Live Messenger -- formerly MSN Messenger -- has just hit the ripe old age of 10. Here's a few little-known factoids about the wildly popular instant messaging (IM) service.

Exactly ten years ago, on July 22, 1999, Windows Live Messenger was born and forever changing how millions of Canadians and other PC users would communicate.

To help celebrate this milestone, we asked Microsoft Canada and comscore for some fun facts about the widely-used IM service. Check out these following tidbits:

* If all 330 million active monthly Windows Live Messenger users joined hands, they would stretch around the earth more than 12 times (12.3 times to be exact).

* If all these active Windows Live Messenger users would form a country, "Messengerland" would be the 3rd largest country in the world (right after China and India and before USA).

* With an IM category reach of about 60 percent market share, Windows Live Messenger is the most widely used free instant messaging service in the world.

* Windows Live Messenger is now available in 59 countries and 36 languages.

Way to go, guys.

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