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MySpace has officially announced the beta launch of their instant messaging service, MySpaceIM.

"MySpace Launches Beta Instant Messaging"

MySpace did a soft launch of the service about a year ago and since 17 million users globally have signed on to MySpaceIM. MySpace says in the last six months the instant messaging service has grown more than 250 percent.

"This is a product with personality," said Tom Anderson, president and co-founder of MySpace. "MySpaceIM was born out of user feedback and we've spent the last year listening to our community and tweaking it to match their needs. MySpace will continue to build an open, unique feature set that's as creative and expressive as our users."

MySpaceIM will compete with other well-established instant messaging services such as AOL Instant Messenger, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Instant Messenger.

MySpaceIM can be downloaded directly to users computer allowing them to add their network of friends. Users can view the profiles of their friends as their log-in and can use the IM to send messages, comment, view friends videos, pictures and read blog postings.

MySapceIM is available in the UK, Japan, Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, MySpace en Espanol, Latin America, and China.

MySpace says they have plans to launch a series of products and services in the coming months "to make it more efficient for MySpace users to express themselves, manage their social lives, and connect with friends."