BT kills Ribbit’s web phone platform, sends customers to the fast-growing Twilio

BT, the UK-based phone giant, has killed the Ribbit web phone and messaging platform it owns and is advising Ribbit customers to head to competitor Twilio.

Twilio is a fast-growing company that sources tell us is “killing it” in terms of revenue growth. Launched in 2007, the company has 60 employees and high double-digit million revenue, we’re told.

Ribbit once boasted that it was “Silicon Valley’s first phone company” because of the innovative technology it offered: It was early to develop a very easy way for Web developers to embed code into web pages that allowed users to make phone calls and send other messages while online.

BT, which bought Ribbit in 2008 for $1o5 million, just six months after Ribbit launched at the DEMO conference (which VentureBeat co-produces), has apparently decided it doesn’t want Ribbit serving other developers. In an email to its customers this evening, Ribbit announced it will discontinue access to its voice platform, SDKs and APIs within 60 days. It recommended customers transfer to Twilio, which offers comparable services and has recently surged ahead with new features (one Skype-like feature recently announced at our MobileBeat conference).

From the email, a copy of which was forwarded to VentureBeat: “We’re pleased to confirm that the team at Twilio have agreed to offer you $100 of Free credit and in addition, a $100 discount to their upcoming Twilio Conference to get you started.”

Ribbit said the notice refers to Ribbit developers and doesn’t affect Ribbit Mobile or Ribbit for Salesforce users.