MySpace and Facebook may be frenemies forever, but now they have a new mutual friend that will pass notes between them. Meebo, the Web-based IM service, now supports IM accounts from both social networks. That means you can enter your Facebook and MySpace account IDs into Meebo and the chat with friends from both social networks in one IM box. The integration will work on Meebo.com itself, as well its Community IM partner sites.
While the partnership with MySpace is official, Meebo basically reverse-engineered Facebook’s IM. So if Facebook decides to change its IM protocols, the Meebo integration could break until its engineers apply a band aid. The MySpace integration, in contrast, is built on top of official APIs and incorporates all the security features of MySpace IM.
Meebo also supports AIM, Gtalk, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Jabber, and ICQ accounts. It claims 40 million members, who send 5 billion messages a month. ComScore reports 7.4 million monthly visitors worldwide to Meebo.com, and shows some flattening of growth. Tapping into Facebook and MySpace should help Meebo keep its growth going.
It’s kinda hard to believe that Meebo works so well and is so successful but has not been acquired.
Definitely Tina. I am on a train, connected via 3.5G, and Meebo lets me get connected to everything unrelated to work through a single website. And as you said, it is hard to believe a webbased IM platform can work so well and hasn’t been acquired yet. Kudos to the folks at Meebo. Excellent job.
Tina and Basar are the same person. Part of the meebo hype group.
hahaha
“Meebo allowed me to shoot fire out of my eyes!”
It boggles the mind how something so simple could raise so much money. Honestly what do you need $37.5 million for ?
Just by searching on the SE you can find free source code for meebo clones so nothing hard.
Servers ? nope you can run a service like meebo using a few dozen servers at most total $20-30,000 . So creating the community but you can advertise and for 1 mill a year you can flood the Net with your ads.
Seriously Meebo has to be one of the most overated things around.
liberta-togo.com
Honestly what do you need $37.5 million for ?
http://tinyurl.com/4rdhmc
One word: Addicting.
What are they doing with 37.5 mil?
great question.
is this “Startup Squatting? startups that sit on funding instead of utilizing it to its fullest?
Meebo should invest in something that is better than what they have now. start by building there own platform and network of strategic web properties. common sense.
VentureLocator.com – share the wealth
Would you -please- stop throwing around terms without actually knowing what you’re talking about? Your NonsenseLocator.com gig is getting extremely old.
Doesn’t Adium do the same thing?
It’s an application and for Mac only I know, but it connects me to the same services except MySpace…why would I do anything on MySpace anyway?!
Yes, but less interestingly because, as you said, it’s a Mac-only app.
imo Trillian Astra will be more compelling when it comes out of beta: Web interface, more networks than Meebo, and cross-platform clients as well: http://www.tril...r-features.html
Hmmm. Is this live yet? I just checked and it still looks the same to me
I am not seeing FB as an addtional IM service in my Meebo acct, has it been rolled out across the whole site yet?
Kevin/Daniel – we’ll be releasing over the course of the day. Check back soon.
I’ll send an update when it goes live.
Needing 37.5mil to make chat is pretty broken. Especially given the very nice lack of business model.
They should have sold before the economy tanked. Companies with eyeballs but no prospects for revenue are harder to sell or at least sell for much less these days.
Well executed product but not really a “company”.
Scoble Did a great interview with Meebo a while ago and it does seem like they have a business model.
http://scobleiz...-success-meebo/
Dan, do you KNOW they have no business model, or is this something you’re assuming? You just sound very matter-of-fact about it for not having much more knowledge than anyone else.
Are there any plans to incorporate Skype into this model? Any product or service that allow to use Skype/Gtalk/Yahoo Mgr, etc.?
eBuddy already added Myspace chat a while ago, also Facebook on mobile. Wondering when they will have it on the web…
This is awesome news!
Meebo absolutely has a business model. The model is to bring in zero revenues. They are executing on this flawlessly!
It’s not easy to raise $30m+ without a business model. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why they may not share the model with public as it is an industry with very low entry barriers.
A business model requires taking money from a buyer. I haven’t seen nor heard anyone paying money to Meebo.
Hi all – just a quick update. The release should be live for everyone. Head to Meebo.com and let us know if you see any bugs.
Also, if you want to hear more about our very healthy business, feel free to email me. I’m danny at meebo.com. Happy holidays!
Meebo is really a hyped up company. For the 37mil they received in funding all they have is hype. They will close doors in a year or so.
How about adding IRC next.
Yeah for meebo.com! Now I can chat with my FB and MySpace friends w/o needing to install any client-side software.
@ Adam at 2:33 pm PST
– I am pretty certain those ads at the bottom are not free to display. And considering meebo has a high percentage of users in high school and so, I wasn’t surprised to see Duffy ads today.
The problem is not just that “they don’t have a business model” but it’s also hard to imagine one. Why would anyone want to buy a business that is loosing money without any vision to make money? I really think it’s time that acquirers will leave the hype aside and focus on real businesses…
very cool. using it and waiting for the mobile client version.
Too bad they still are not able to identify a viable business model ..A great service anyways!
eBuddy already had this for years on mobile.
“Meebo basically reverse-engineered Facebook’s IM. So if Facebook decides to change its IM protocols, the Meebo integration could break until its engineers apply a band aid.”
Actually, Meebo didn’t reverse engineer it. If you re-read their blog post, they’re actually using the open-source pidgin-facebookchat plugin I wrote. Also, its unlikely that Facebook will change their protocol since they came out with an iPhone app. If it does break, it may not be “Meebo engineers” who fix it up.