A newly released study by the Radicati Group, a Palo Alto, CA based research firm indicates that the number of spam messages received via IM (instance messenger) will triple this year, from 400 million to 1.2 bilion.  The report goes on to indicate that pornographic messages make up the majority of SPIM, an overwhelming 70 percent.  It looks like porn continues to be one of the most profitable industries on the internet.

The increase in IM spam, also referred to as "spim", will come about due to much greater use of IM among businesses and a rapid increase in published IM names in corporate and public directories, Radicati says in a report.

The overall business IM market grew by 130 percent from 2002 to 2003, and will grow a further 85 percent from 2003 to 2004, according to another research company, Ferris Research. By 2007, the overall business IM market will increase to 182 million users, representing a compound annual growth rate of 79 percent.