Exclusive - eBuddy, the Dutch company that enables millions of people worldwide to communicate with each other on the Web and a wide range of mobile phones, says it’s the first independent messaging app to exceed 250 million user accounts.
A lot of those new users are people who use Android-powered phones, eBuddy says, positing that growth on that particular platform is up 300 percent year-over-year.
Of course, not all of those 250 million user accounts are active, but you’d be surprised to learn how many are – at least according to eBuddy, who says 163 million accounts are active on an annual basis, and that users of eBuddy Messenger currently spend more than ten billion minutes per month engaged with the app. → Read More
eBuddy, the Dutch company that enables millions of people worldwide to communicate with each other on the Web and a wide range of mobile phones, is today introducing a brand new application for iPhone and Android. With the app, dubbed eBuddy XMS, the company aims to go “beyond SMS” with a free realtime messaging tool that functions across a range of platforms (BlackBerry coming soon).
eBuddy believes it can add value to the fast growing mobile messaging apps category based on its wealth of digital messaging expertise and by focusing primarily on the user experience. → Read More
eBuddy, the swiss army knife of web and mobile instant messaging services, this morning announced that it has achieved over 100 million downloads of its mobile applications since its 2007 debut, thus stepping in the footsteps of the likes of Facebook, Google (Maps), and Opera (Mini) when it comes to the number of app downloads reached.
In case you’re not familiar with eBuddy, the service basically enables users around the world to chat for free in one, aggregated interface across most major IM networks, including AIM, Facebook Chat, Google Talk, ICQ, MySpace, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. → Read More
App Store GetJar announced today that web and mobile messaging service provider eBuddy has surpassed the 50 million downloads mark for its eBuddy Mobile Messenger app. At the time of writing, the product page shows 50,655,934 downloads to date.
eBuddy thus joins the ranks of Facebook as the second mobile app to exceed 50 million downloads on GetJar.
Notably, the milestone was reached less than 15 months after hitting 10m downloads. → Read More
Web and mobile instant messaging (IM) aggregator service provider eBuddy, based in Amsterdam, has announced that its Mobile Messenger app has zoomed past one million downloads in less than three months on Nokia’s Ovi Store.
The app has been downloaded by users in more than 203 countries, the company adds – a testament to the global footprint of Nokia.
The app has garnered over 930 reviews on the Ovi Store and a 4/5 star rating. Alternatives on Nokia’s Ovi Store include Nimbuzz and fring. → Read More
For the past four months, Amsterdam-based eBuddy has turned a profit, CEO Jan-Joost Rueb tells me, by offering advertising-supported services for free in combination with sales of a premium iPhone application.
The company, backed by 11.5 million Euros in venture capital from Lowland Capital Partners and Prime Technology Ventures, markets a Web-based social network and instant messaging aggregator that enables people to sign in to their service once and stay connected to people through various platforms in one single interface where all of them are centralized.
It also offers a number of ways for people to use the service on their mobile phones, through a mobile web service, a Java-based messenger client and applications for iPhone and Android. → Read More
Nearly five months after launching a free, ad-supported application for iPhone and iPod Touch, eBuddy is today introducing a paid version of the program, which enables users to communicate with contacts across various instant messaging clients.
Priced at $4.99 (iTunes link), which in my opinion is fairly expensive, the app lets you chat with friends on Facebook Chat, ICQ, Gtalk, AIM, MySpace, Windows Live Messenger or Yahoo Messenger alike. → Read More
eBuddy, the Dutch startup behind the eponymous mobile communication tool I dubbed the swiss army knife for instant messaging when it debuted an application for the Android platform last May, is announcing one hell of an iPhone application today. For context: eBuddy is a free mobile app that enables users to communicate with others using AIM, Facebook Chat, ICQ, Gtalk, Windows Live Messenger etc. in one, aggregated interface.
The application for the iPhone and iPod Touch the company is announcing today has quietly gone live in the App Store last week, but hasn’t been promoted in any way since until today. It brings a very strong competitor to the likes of Nimbuzz and fring, both of which have had native iPhone applications for a while now. Where eBuddy differentiates is in its support for Apple’s Push Notification Service, which allows a third-party server to ping the service in order to push out notifications to your device over a persistent IP connection. → Read More
eBuddy, the Dutch startup behind the eponymous mobile communication tool I dubbed the swiss army knife for instant messaging when it debuted an application for the Android platform last May, is announcing one hell of an iPhone application today. For context: eBuddy is a free mobile app that enables users to communicate with others using AIM, Facebook Chat, ICQ, Gtalk, Windows Live Messenger etc. in one, aggregated interface.
The application for the iPhone and iPod Touch the company is announcing today has quietly gone live in the App Store last week (iTunes link), but hasn’t been promoted in any way since until today. It brings a very strong competitor to the likes of Nimbuzz and fring, both of which have had native iPhone applications for a while now. Where eBuddy differentiates is in its support for Apple’s Push Notification Service, which allows a third-party server to ping the service in order to push out notifications to your device over a persistent IP connection. → Read More
The Netherlands-based eBuddy, which markets a comprehensive application that lets users handle multiple instant messaging accounts from the web or their mobile phones, is today releasing an application for the Android platform a couple months after Meebo made its similar product available on there (November 2008).
The eBuddy application for Google’s open mobile OS is now available for free on marketplace Android Market, and users can thus benefit from a single ID to chat with their friends on third-party communication platforms such as Facebook, Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, ICQ and more. → Read More
The Netherlands-based eBuddy, which markets a comprehensive application that lets users handle multiple instant messaging accounts from the web or their mobile phones, is today releasing an application for the Android platform a couple months after Meebo made its similar product available on there (November 2008).
The eBuddy application for Google’s open mobile OS is now available for free on the Android Market, and users can thus benefit from a single ID to chat with their friends on third-party communication platforms such as Facebook, Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, ICQ and more. → Read More
Fring, the Israel-based mobile call and chat application provider, has closed a Series C round of financing on top of the $13 million it has raised since its inception in 2006. The capital comes from its entire list of previous backers: North Bridge Venture Partners, Pitango Venture Capital, Veritas Venture Partners and VenFin Limited all participated in the round.
The actual amount raised was not shared, but we’re told that the third round is pretty much on par with the Series B round the company closed in August 2007 (estimated at $12 million when we reported it, but more in the vicinity of $10 million according to information we received later) and that it’s “most definitely not a downround”. → Read More
eBuddy, the instant messenger startup that we’ve likened to a European meebo (though eBuddy has been around for much longer), has released the latest figures for its mobile instant messaging client, and it looks like business is booming.
Since July, the mobile J2ME eBuddy client has been downloaded over 5 million times, and has seen 10 million total downloads since launching in summer 2007 (current download rates are pegged at around 1 million per month. The company reports 1.5 billion message exchanges monthly across an average of 3 million users. On application repository GetJar, the application is the top most downloaded app, ahead of notables like Google Maps. The application’s reach is also global, with availability in 195 countries and 37 languages. → Read More
Over the past few days at the Next Web conference in Amsterdam, I had the opportunity to hang out with about 700 Internet entrepreneurs from all over Europe. The startup scene in Europe reminds me of Silicon Valley four or five years ago—hungry startups building Web companies on the cheap and products that scratch a personal itch. Swedish startup Twingly, for instance, wants to come up with spam-free blog search by starting with the best 450,000 blogs and letting users share blog posts with each other. ParisBrussels-based Zilok is creating an eBay for renting things such as drills and digital projectors. London’s Fav.or.it makes a feed reader with extra powers—you can leave comments on blogs within the reader, it ranks posts based on how much they are actually read, and it lets you filter posts by tag, rank, or category. In Munich, andUnite has created a service that allows you to collect your search terms and share them with others. And a handful of companies are even gaining substantial traction. I was surprised to learn that the social network Netlog claims 30 million unique visitors and four billion page views per month (comScore counts 11 million visitors, but five billion page views). Netlog operates in 15 different languages, and 20 countries. Then there is eBuddy, the Meebo of Europe, which boasts 12 million Web users and 1.6 million mobile users of its Web-based instant-messaging service. Most of the startups I encountered, however, are still operating under the radar—in Romania, Sweden, Holland, Ireland, France. But a cross-border Web 2.0 culture is definitely gaining steam across Europe. Technology itself is helping to break down borders. A VC showed me the landing page on his mobile phone. It wasn’t his e-mail. It was Twitter. Another startup founder told me that Twitter helps him keep a dialogue going with other entrepreneurs and VCs across Europe, and even with contacts in the U.S. Europe is still a mosaic of employment law, tax regulations, and cultural habits that can influence where it makes the most sense to locate different parts of a business. One Dutch CEO, for instance, told me that it costs you need a minimum of 18,000 Euros in starting capital just to incorporate in the Netherlands. And that is just the government’s fee. When I asked which region was most likely to emerge as Europe’s Silicon Valley, the answers were all over the → Read More
AOL is pushing their two year old OpenAim initiative much further this morning with OpenAIM 2.0. There are three key changes of note. First they are now embracing services that they previously tried to stop – multiheaded clients and websites that allow users to access all of the major instant messaging platforms in one place. These are desktop services like Pidgin (open source), Adium (Mac) and Trillian (Windows). And web based services like Meebo and eBuddy. Today those services have to hack in to MSN, Yahoo and AOL services (Google Gtalk is open). Now AOL is giving them unfettered access, too. What that means is that AOL goes from being in a position of half ignoring services like Meebo and half vaguely threatening to sue them, to fully embracing and supporting the services. Second, AOL is also removing the usage restrictions that were put in place two years ago that restricted big services from using them (again, forcing Meebo, eBuddy and others to hack in). Third, AOL is saying they’ll soon be giving partners who build software on top of AIM the option to run AOL-served advertisements with a revenue share. AOL says more details on advertising will be coming next month, and will be powered by their Userplane group, which AOL acquired in 2006. There are a number of additional changes to OpenAIM as well, including more robust tools for third party add-ons (see gallery of existing add-ons here) and for mobile applications. And they are documenting their protocol for accessing AIM, called OSCAR. David Liu, AOL SVP of Social Media, Messaging and Homepages, said in an interview that they want to remove all the friction and hurdles to third parties who want to leverage the AIM service, and welcome them with open arms. “To that end, we’ve come together with third-party chat services such as meebo and eBuddy to enhance the experiences of our users who access the AIM platform from these web-based services. We’re also giving developers the tools and flexibility they desire to build innovative and meaningful applications around instant messaging for web users around the globe.” AIM has 27.3 million monthly users (plus another 30 million at ICQ, which is not part of this announcement), according to recent Comscore data. MSN has 235 million and Yahoo has 97.6 million. Gtalk has 4.9 million. CrunchBase Information AOL Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
eBuddy, a web chat application that actually was around long before the similar high-flying Silicon Valley startup Meebo, raised €6.5 million in a Series B round of funding today. The investment was led by Prime Technology Ventures. The company had previously raised €5 million. eBuddy and Meebo are roughly equivalent according to worldwide Comscore numbers (4.8 million unique visitors for Meebo in December 2007, 4.5 million for eBuddy). Ebuddy says their internal stats actually show 12 million monthly uniques, with 1.5 million new users being added monthly. eBuddy users can log into AOL, Google Talk, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo Messenger from their website, without the need to download any additional software. The company was originally called eMessenger, but relaunched as eBuddy in June 2006. CrunchBase Information eBuddy Meebo Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
The guys who spent a lazy weekend writing a free iPhone IM client that currently has 30,000 users, Flick.IM, are back with a web chat client for AIM, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber. I know, another multi-service chat client – *sigh*. There’s already Meebo, eBuddy, KoolIM, and a host of other services integrating existing chat services. However, Flick.IM has a rather significant twist, they’re acting as a platform for integrating web applications into IM. FlickIM is letting applications integrate right into chat messages or as widgets along a sidebar. For instance, a Yelp widget will let users search for restaurants and send the reviews to friends through a chat message. Similar to Facebook, users will be able to add and remove the applications and notify their friends about what apps they have installed. Another startup, Imified, integrates web applications into IM, but does this for desktop chat applications through commands to chat bots. Facebook is also a company to watch for this functionality. For now Flick.IM has launched with a handful applications, but will soon let developers add their own widgets and services to the platform through an API released in the next two to three weeks. All the new applications and information will be available at Flickapps.com. While the depth of the API is still under scrutiny, it may even let developers provide contextually based services by scanning user’s conversations (with permission). For instance, if you’re talking about a movie, a Flick.IM application could automatically provide links and times for that movie. Their starting applications included six widgets and two integrated services. The integrated services allow you to embed photos and videos right into chat messages. Photos are shared by uploadeding them directly, while videos can pulled from a YouTube video search by typing “/video VIDEONAME”. Non-Flick.IM users will get links to the pictures and videos instead of an embed. Widgets include restaurant search on Yelp, Google Gmail, Last.fm radio, LiveNation, Yoink’d video search, and a beercam for kicks. The Yelp widget has the greatest amount of integration right now. It lets you run a quick restaurant search and send the link to your chat box. Flick.IM has broader ambitions than this IM client, with an overall focus on real-time social networking. The chat client will eventually be one of many services incorporated in a new domain to be launched in the coming months. → Read More
European web chat startup eBuddy, which is in a fight-to-the-death struggle with Silicon Valley based Meebo, just added support for MySpace instant messaging tor their product. eBuddy now supports MySpace IM, AOL, ICQ, GoogleTalk, MSN and Yahoo. Log in to some of all of these services from the eBuddy home page. MySpace says they now have over 18.5 million users of the service, which soft launched in September 2006. By comparison, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ and AIM have 224 million, 93 million, 30 million and 30 million users, respectively (Comscore worldwide – July 2007). GTalk trails the rest, with just 4.8 million users. Rumor is that Trillian, a downloadable piece of software that also accesses all major IM networks except Skype, will be adding MySpace support soon, too. → Read More
One of the bigger letdowns of the iPhone is a lack of instant messaging support. Last month we took a look at FlickIM one of the first iPhone-specific chat applications (but only for AIM). Older web chat startups Meebo and eBuddy also have their own applications. eBuddy’s is iPhone customized. Meebo doesn’t hide the fact that they will launch one soon. Today, Mundu, an Indian web chat provider threw their hat into the ring with Mundu for the iPhone. Like other web chat clients, it connects the big guys: ICQ, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and Google. The application consists of three different pages: log in, contacts, and chat. Clicking on a contact opens up a new conversation tab in your chat pane. It worked well enough, with a reasonable response time and legible text. It’s better than eBuddy (load time issues) and FlickIM (AIM only). So why in the world will they eventually charge $11 for it? There are way better ways to monetize software. Offer a free version and drop an advertisement into the conversation every once in a while, for example. But if Mundu wants to get a lot of users fast before Apple adds their own apps, they can’t be screwing around with charging customers. The marginal production cost of software is zero. That’s what the price should be. Here’s a look at the other guys: Meebo – They don’t have a optimized application, however, Meebo’s web application works. Unfortunately chatting on it is like using the site through a key hole. You have to constantly zoom in and out to pick your contacts or chat in a specific window. It also crashed my browser from time to time. FlickIM – If you just want to get on AIM, I strongly suggest FlickIM. It’s a no frills chat app that lets you get online and easily start chatting. It also maintains your user session even if you exit the browser. The only drawback is that they use a drop down menu to select a chat contacts instead of an easy to scan list that takes advantage of the iPhone’s scrolling. eBuddy – They have the fanciest iPhone chat application with a lot of the full application functions. On eBuddy you can chat with your contacts, send smilies, change and change your text color. Unfortunately it only connects to MSN, Yahoo, and AIM. → Read More
Newly-launched Snimmer has a glimmer of a great idea, but don’t test it unless you are very careful and/or prepared to apologize to your instant messaging contacts all evening. I wasn’t. Like Meebo and eBuddy, Snimmer is a web-based instant messaging service. Unlike those services, however, Snimmer is also a social network, allowing users to upload bio information, photos, and other information about themselves and share it with others. If you find people you want to chat with on the service, you can create a chat room on the fly using Jabber (or GTalk) – they do not need to have previously been added to your instant messaging friends list. When you use the service and sign on there is an opt-out to tell all your friends about the service. I caught it the first time and unchecked it, but on a second login I forgot and all of my GTalk friends were IMed with a message about Snimmer. I then spent thirty minutes apologizing to everyone who IMed me with “WTF” or something similar. I like the idea a lot – looking at people’s pictures and other information while chatting with them is a great idea. Try it if you dare – but don’t say I didn’t warn you. → Read More
