When I arrived to China, I was amazed by the high utilization of instant messengers. People not only use it as a quick means of communication, but it also serves as an excellent information dissemination tool (not to say, as a good back-up when email systems breakdown). The most popular IM are MSN and QQ, and Yahoo is seldom used locally due to low penetration rates.
MSN is widely used in our office and I can understand why. The tool is highly customizable, and has certain amenities that allow personalization. Users can write a personal note next to their ID, and their friends would see it. I see sometimes good wishing notes, or just plain announcements such as "My new cell phone number is XXX."
To set aside the benefits and threats of MSN usage in an office environment, recent incidents that affected China locally and globally has made MSN a tool to voice users view points. Just let me pick two examples: the Olympic torch relay and the recent earthquake in Sichuan.
During the Olympic torch relay, many demonstrations were held overseas to voice their "anti-China" sentiments, and those graphic videos of demonstrators trying to disrupt the relay were beemed back to China. This caused nationwide uproar, and together with CNN's remarks and news that Carrefour's owner supported the Dalai Lama, really brought up the nationalism sense among Chinese. In a few days after all these incidents, a trend got started, where a "red heart" symbol could be installed along your MSN ID through a few simple clicks. The heart symbolized "Love and Proud of China" and very soon, I could see my MSN friends all with hearts in front of their ID. It felt like an unspoken solidarity, a digital and quick way for people to show their point of views. Even though it was noise-less, but the visual impact is there!!
Just two days ago, with the Sichuan earthquake affecting all of us, another trend got started. This time, it had money attached. MSN partnered with Toyota, and to show our compassion and support to those who were affected by the earthquake, for every "rainbow" that was installed in front of the MSN ID, Toyota would donate a RMB 0.1 (1cent US). And within a couple of hours, over 800,000 people have signed up and join the parade of rainbows. To me, this is not only a remarkable effort by a Japanese company trying to show solidarity (remember, China and Japan have historical conflicts that are still not fully resolved), but also how an "old" industry tries to embrace new technology, and achieving good will and CSR along the way.