It will be very interesting to watch as this space continues to develop and approach new strategies for monetization. I particularly agree with the thoughts shared by Ada with regard to advertising. One of the primary reasons why users choose Facebook over MySpace is the clean feel of Facebook and the lack of distracting ads such as flashing icons and bright banners. If the user IM experience is adversely affected by monetization through advertising, Meebo has no real “hook” to prevent them from leaving for one of their competitors.

This point neatly segues into another issue that comes to mind (for me) with regard to competition and the creation of a new API for Meebo. That is, what happens if (when) Facebook launches its own version of IM based on the FB Platform? When this takes place, then FB users will have the whole spectrum of social connectivity and interaction taken care of on their single platform–from IM and games to music. With the millions of users that currently use both Facebook and Meebo, I wonder if users would stay with Meebo when FB launches it’s own version of IM that integrates across the rest of its ready-made applications.

Of course, Meebo has a strong user base and a great product that insulate it from its current competitors, and which may be enough to withstand these eventual moves by FB and others. But, I just wonder what will happen if FB is able to develop IM with all the functionality that currently sets Meebo apart, and that allows for integration with all the other available applications developed on the FB platform (which Meebo could never compete with).

I’m curious to see what others think, and even more interested to see how this space evolves as it makes a push toward greater monetization.

Thanks again Doug!

Jon, good point about chat logs, sounds promising. I’m curious what that analysis would yield for ad targeting and further where those targeted ads might appear.

Scott, good questions. Maybe start with partnerships to seed high quality app’s, demonstrate app adoption and decide from there. What would you do?

Jing, that’d be neat to see more in mobile. I look forward to watching that space develop.

Sachin, nice, can’t wait to see what you come up with. I suppose Pandora might be thinking about what to do with their active users as well.

Ido, sounds like many find mobile intriguing. I don’t know what they’ll do, but more mobile IM definitely makes sense. It seems they also have a lot of opportunity to build a business around the web audience they are building.

Ada, good point about ads. Meebo currently lets you close an ad and a new one won’t show up for a while. You’re right it’s important to keep track of user response. I’m curious how these ads will evolve.

Nii, well said, I agree. The opportunity is definitely there to create a platform, and it’s early enough for Meebo where there are a number of potential courses of action.

This is particularly bad because, as you rightly pointed out, there’s very little switching cost to move to another IM service. Many people use Meebo not only because they allow you to be signed onto many IM services at once, but because they are lightweight tools that don’t try to push ads or too many additional services like games. Whatever the implementation, care should be taken to safeguard the user experience.

Good stuff!
An open platform (e.g. facebook) could be a true ‘growth engine’ to any company with a viral aspect like Meebo. I was wondering if they will go in the direction of more ‘mobile’ ability (e.g. iphone/black-barry versions)…

What do you think?
Ido