eBuddy is a privately held Dutch software company that offers

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...

services. As of 2011, eBuddy reported 100 million downloads. The company's flagship service is XMS, a proprietary

cross-platform In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software ...

instant messaging service. After some changes of ownership, the company is now again owned by its original founders, Onno Bakker and Jan-Joost Rueb.

Services

XMS

XMS is a proprietary cross platform instant messaging service. At one point, XMS was processing over 17 billion messages a month exchanged between more than 30 million unique users - 100,000 users were signing up daily and 1.5 billion banner ads sold on web. In a 2011 review, the head of the BerryReview team mentioned that the service has many features in common with other cross-platform messaging services. It does include some multimedia features: users can send images and videos, and can share their location. XMS is available for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

, Android,

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy ...

, Nokia

Series 40 Series 40, often shortened as S40, is a software platform and application user interface (UI) software on Nokia's broad range of mid-tier feature phones, as well as on some of the Vertu line of luxury phones. It was one of the world's most wi ...

, and

Windows Phone 7 Windows Phone 7 is the first release of the Windows Phone mobile client operating system, released worldwide on October 21, 2010, and in the United States on November 8, 2010. It runs on the Windows CE 6.0 kernel. It received multiple large upda ...

devices. There is also a web-based client, called "Web XMS", for computer users.

Security

On November 4, 2014, Ebuddy XMS scored 1 out of 7 points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's secure messaging scorecard. Ebuddy XMS received a point for encryption during transit but lost points because communications are not encrypted with a key the provider doesn't have access to (i.e. the communications are not end-to-end encrypted), users can't verify contacts' identities, past messages are not secure if the encryption keys are stolen (i.e. the service does not provide

forward secrecy In cryptography, forward secrecy (FS), also known as perfect forward secrecy (PFS), is a feature of specific key agreement protocols that gives assurances that session keys will not be compromised even if long-term secrets used in the session key ...

), the code is not open to independent review (i.e. the code is not open-source), the security design is not properly documented, and there has not been a recent independent security audit. AIM, BlackBerry Messenger, Hushmail,

Kik Messenger Kik Messenger, commonly called Kik, is a freeware instant messaging mobile app from the Canadian company Kik Interactive, available on iOS and Android operating systems. The application uses a smartphone's internet connection to transmit and re ...

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...

Viber Viber, or Rakuten Viber, is a cross-platform voice over IP (VoIP) and instant messaging (IM) software application owned by Japanese multinational company Rakuten, provided as freeware for the Google Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS ...

, and Yahoo Messenger also scored 1 out of 7 points.

eBuddy Chat

eBuddy Chat was a line of multi-protocol instant messaging clients: it allowed users with

Facebook Chat Messenger is a proprietary instant messaging app and platform developed by Meta Platforms. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the company revamped its messaging service in 2010, released standalone iOS and Android apps in 2011, and ...

, MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ and AOL accounts to chat free of charge in one aggregated interface. eBuddy Chat supported a Web interface and also supported

, Android, J2ME and mobile Web-enabled devices. In 2010, it was named one of the five finalists for "Best Mobile App" in the Mashable Awards. With the move toward mobile, in 2013, the company announced that it was discontinuing development of its eBuddy Chat multi-protocol instant messaging clients.

History

eBuddy was originally developed by Paulo Taylor. His idea was established as a consequence from a bet to develop

MSN Messenger MSN Messenger (also known colloquially simply as "Messenger"), later rebranded as Windows Live Messenger, was a cross-platform instant-messaging client developed by Microsoft. It connected to the Microsoft Messenger service and, in later versio ...

, as it was named in 2003, for a

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...

. After several weeks he won the bet, and uploaded the application to a server. A web version was soon developed following users' demands. As user traffic spurred, Taylor decided to take the idea further. Originally backed by Prime Technology Ventures and Lowland Capital Partners and headquartered in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, with offices in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, United States.,http://www.ebuddy.com/about.html after a successful partnership with Japanese-based GREE, eBuddy was sold via an aqui-hire to Booking.com. * On September 9, 2003, Taylor, together with two partners Jan-Joost Rueb and Onno Bakker, created EverywhereMSN.com. * On June 1, 2006, e-Messenger was renamed to eBuddy. * On October 26, 2006, eBuddy received $6.33M (€5M) in Series A funding. * On May 2, 2008, eBuddy received $9.55M (€6.5M) in Series B funding. * On March 17, 2011, eBuddy launched its proprietary instant messaging app XMS. * On September 21, 2012, Japanese gaming company

GREE GREE (derived from an abbreviation of the " Six degrees of separation" concept) is a Japanese social networking service founded by Yoshikazu Tanaka and operated by GREE, Inc. GREE focuses primarily on mobile games and over ninety percent of it ...

acquired a minority stake in eBuddy. * However, GREE decided to leave the European market in 2013. * On December 4, 2013, Dutch online booking portal

Booking.com Booking.com, headquartered in Amsterdam, is one of the largest online travel agencies. It is a subsidiary of Booking Holdings. History In 1996, Geert-Jan Bruinsma, a student at Universiteit Twente, founded Bookings.nl. In 2000, Booking.com w ...

bought eBuddy in an acqui-hire agreement

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ebuddy Companies based in Amsterdam Dutch brands 2003 software 2011 software Symbian instant messaging clients BlackBerry software Instant messaging clients