Web-based instant message services — whether AIM, MSN, Yahoo or Gtalk — are some of the most popular forms of online communication. There are a couple startups that have taken advantage of this; most people in Silicon Valley will know locally-based startup Meebo, which lets you chat with friends across any of these networks.
But Meebo has a European rival, Amsterdam-based eBuddy, that may be less familiar. That’s about to change: eBuddy is opening up an office in San Francisco, it’s already making money, and it offers some pretty compelling services. See my interview with chief executive Jan-Joost Rueb, below (pictured, above).
Meebo was recently rumored to have only earned as much as $1 million since its inception in 2005. Amsterdam-based eBuddy, in contrast, says it has earned nearly 10 times that amount. Rueb tells me that the company has experienced success selling advertising packages that include homepage takeovers and “sponsored” emoticons. He says eBuddy, which is popular in Europe and other parts of the world, even sells ads in the UK for several pounds CPM or higher.
And notably, Google Trends shows that eBuddy recently surpassed Meebo as the more frequently searched term on Google (search frequency is generally a good proxy for determining a service’s relative popularity).
While Meebo focuses on putting chat rooms all over the web with their Meebo Rooms product — a group chat widget you can embed on other sites — eBuddy has focused on building out its mobile offerings. That bet has paid off in user acquisition as eBuddy has racked up two million unique mobile visitors, from among its fifteen million monthly unique visitors across its services. Meebo claims more than seven million users of its web applications, with more than 20 million monthly unique visitors of Meebo rooms. Meebo has an iPhone app but no other app developed specifically for mobile. Mobile penetration is important because there’s potential to incorporate high CPM mobile ads.
Below is my Q&A with Jan-Joost:
VentureBeat: How do you show eBuddy has serious profit-making potential? What progress is there in monetizing the high engagement numbers on eBuddy?
Jan-Joost Rueb: eBuddy has grown to close to 15 million monthly uniques where we already showed serious revenues and even some profits in the past. Among our users are almost two million monthly uniques on mobile where have not yet made any revenues. Soon we will have more direct sales and will be able to target campaigns by age and gender. Together with future “social ads” and location based services we are able to make serious revenues.
VB: What’s your vision for eBuddy?
JJR: We are the only large player in this field strong on web *and* mobile. With web-mobile convergence around the corner, we will offer the best and seamless user experience on any device. We will offer consolidated IM, packed with new features. On this large, highly scalable platform we will be able to offer advertisers cross media campaigns.
