Idk if it’s a ripoff of Y!IM or something
AIM was technically the first IM for its time in 1997. It was originally a feature in the AOL Desktop software, so that was neat. 
But that’s not to say that any IMs after AIM were ripoffs. IMs were mainly things meant as a “side” for companies focused on the Internet (e.g., MSN had MSN/Windows Live Messenger; Yahoo! has Yahoo! Messenger, and I say “has” because it is still maintained in a way). Still, I think this quote from @TReKiE from one of our chats may give you a sense of the “competition” between the major IMs, MSN and Yahoo:
Honestly, that still cracks me up. 
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omg… YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT AIM IS?!
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