Chinese web users' effective use time about instant messaging (IM) software amounted to 5.76 billion hours in total during the first quarter of 2009, soaring 42% year on year but dropping 0.4% quarter on quarter, according to a data report by iResearch Consulting Group, a leading Chinese Internet consulting firm.

QQ, the IM strength of Tencent Holdings Ltd. (SEHK: 0700), led the market and reached an effective use time of 5.054 billion hours, ranking first and accounting for 87.8% of the total, citing the report. MSN ranked second with a 3.7% slice, Fetion of China Mobile Ltd. (SEHK: 0941, NYSE: CHL) third with 3.4%, Aliwangwang of China's largest online consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplace Taobao.com fourth with 1.6%, and Tencent Messenger fifth with 1.1%.

The IM market had an web user coverage of approximately 200 million in March, making up about 70% of China's overall web users.