Techniques are described that enable enterprise management of public instant message (IM) communications. When a user requests a connection with a public IM service, the connection request is redirected to a gateway server that is associated with a domain specified in the user's user ID. The gateway server acts as a pass through server between the user's IM client application and the public IM service. The gateway server may be configured to log IM communications in which the user participates. The gateway server may also be configured to control whether or not the user is able to participate in point-to-point communications through the user's IM client application. An enterprise routing server may also be implemented in a geo-distributed enterprise to route a redirected public IM connection request to an enterprise IM gateway server based on a geographic location associated with the user.