Yahoo! Inc, the world's leading Internet portal operator, announced Tuesday it would offer a new service combining mail and instant messaging to 27 million Chinese broadband subscribers by the end of this year to tap the world's most populous market.

Yahoo! Mail Messenger service would allow users to access instant messaging for free through their mailbox service with only a couple of clicks, the company said.

Users would also be able to send instant messages without having to download four or five megabytes of software, it added.

China had an estimated 87 million Internet users and was second to the United States in terms of subscribers, Morgan Stanley said in a report earlier this year.

(Shenzhen Daily December 23, 2004)