Comments on: IM aggregator eBuddy catches up to Meebo in popularity, claims nearly 10x more revenue

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By: Facebook, Twitter, and the Convergence of Messaging « Just Getting Started

Facebook, Twitter, and the Convergence of Messaging « Just Getting Started — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:56:45 +0000

[...] While they have their own internal chat function, why not approach Meebo or eBuddy to acquire their tens of millions of interoperable IM users. Like Twitter, they likely share attributes of “high usage, light revenues”. In addition, [...]

By: yneni

yneni — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:46:58 +0000

the battle is hard. A lot of this sites emerging. just saw a new one, guple.com

By: Meebo shows off new interface, plans for its forthcoming community chat service » VentureBeat

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 15:20:12 +0000

[...] sum, we and others have sometimes wondered how an IM aggregator services like Meebo — or rivals like eBuddy — could become big businesses. Now, we’re starting to see how. Tags: co:Meebo [...]

By: Voting for MobileBeat2008 best companies begins » VentureBeat

Voting for MobileBeat2008 best companies begins » VentureBeat — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:16:38 +0000

[...] Ebuddy — lets you chat across clients (AIM, Yahoo Messenger, gtalk, etc), tailored for the mobile phone. [...]

By: eBuddy

eBuddy — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:07:25 +0000

people use this network

By: ebuddy

ebuddy — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:16:32 +0000

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By: NDL

NDL — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:35:54 +0000

It will be interesting to see how they do penetrating the US market. With the segmentation of the world by geography continuing to shrink, the best services will rise to the top instead of users just selecting the best network for their location. I am still skeptical that IM-based companies will be real drivers of revenue…emoticons are not a business. I think that a FB or Google-based platform that opens up to users of all networks and creates these same features will add much more value than either a Meebo or ebuddy can just by virtue of what they can offer.

By: Finding Value in Social Networks » The Buzz Bin

Finding Value in Social Networks » The Buzz Bin — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:07:20 +0000

[...] ago), people used social networks in its simplest form, most often for one-on-one interaction. Then instant messaging grew to group chat and e-mail turned into groups, listservs and [...]

By: John Meloche

John Meloche — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:27:50 +0000

By popular demand. I have corrected myself.

monitoring = monetizing.

By: John Meloche

John Meloche — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:20:04 +0000

I am convinced that web messengers such as ebuddy.com iloveim.com and meebo.com will essentially end up contributing to the overall growth and popularity of instant online communication. Remember in the beginning… know one even knew how meebo was making money. That’s a major contributing factor. Now.. yes they have monitorized their traffic. Ebuddy is definitely focusing on profit over anything else. Good for them.

If you start with the right food forward and have that solid foundation which is their IT and development staff. They definitely have some great things going for them.

YouTube.com sold for $1.65B – what will EBuddy sell for?

Comparing Meebo to EBuddy is like this…
You could have the most beautiful website in the world. But if you’re not monitoring… it’s worthless. EBuddy has mastered the art of making money off impressions.

By: Julian Gutman

Julian Gutman — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:26:04 +0000

There is one critical factor to remember about network effects without some form of lock-in, their $ value is limited. That’s the problem with a lot of these IM aggregators. Their key strength, ease of use (all you have to do is put in your previous usernames and passwords), is also their Achilles’ heal. There is no lock-in, as it takes beyond a trivial amount of effort to switch to the next best thing. As far as I can tell, in the IM aggregator space, there are seemingly only 2 ways to create lock in:

1) Some form of behavioral conditioning.
2) Leveraging distribution, much like Meebo has done with its chat rooms.
3) Hoping that all of your users are “AOL savvy” (i.e. will stick with the first one they used no matter what). The flip side is that these users are not as high-value.

By: Jack Abraham

Jack Abraham — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:33:53 +0000

I am not convinced that you can build a big business off of just IM. Historically communications products tend to be difficult to monetize. The notable outlier is QQ, a Chinese IM company, that is making $300MM+ a year off of micropayments for icons, smileys, etc but that’s on a base of 500MM users. It’s likely that users in the Western world are worth more but 1) I don’t see my friends paying for smileys and 2) that’s still some serious traffic you have to generate!

One thing that IM networks have going for them are network effects. The more users you have, the more valuable your network is. Jan-Joost mentioned that this was a big reason why AIM won’t be able to push itself on the UK market through Bebo and I tend to agree with that. eBuddy, however, rather than owning it’s own network has become an aggregator of existing ones so no network effects exist and as you pointed out switching costs are very low which is of course why he dodged your last question.

By: eBuddy Claims 10x Meebo’s Revenue, Gets Ready To Conquer US

eBuddy Claims 10x Meebo’s Revenue, Gets Ready To Conquer US — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:35:18 +0000

[...] an interview with VentureBeat, online IM aggregator eBuddy’s CEO Jan-Joost Rueb has revealed the company’s future [...]