Followap was the leading provider and pioneer of mobile Messenger - Instant Messaging and Presence solutions to the mobile industry. It was founded in 1999 and managed by Dan Volach and Ben Volach when mobile Internet was just born. By the time it was acquired, it had over 20 mobile operators many of them tier-ones, serving a combined user base of over 200 million subscribers. The company's headquarters were in London, UK. Followap’s products enabled operators to establish advanced, interoperable mobile Messenger and presence-enhanced services, which were key for next-generation networks. Followap held numerous patents and was actively contributing to industry standardization efforts in forums including OMA,

XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP, originally named Jabber) is an open communication protocol designed for instant messaging (IM), presence information, and contact list maintenance. Based on XML (Extensible Markup Language), i ...

IETF The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a standards organization for the Internet and is responsible for the technical standards that make up the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). It has no formal membership roster or requirements and a ...

, 3GPP and the

GSM Association The GSM Association (commonly referred to as 'the GSMA' or ''Global System for Mobile Communications'', originally ''Groupe Spécial Mobile'') is an industry organisation that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide. More ...

. Followap cooperated with device manufacturers including

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...

and LG. Followap has launched the first commercial mobile Messenger service in the year 2000 in partnership with

Eircell Eircell was an Irish mobile cellular network provider which was established in 1984, with operations commencing in 1986. Its access code was 088 for the original analogue TACS system and 087 for the later GSM system. Following the abolition of th ...

, Ireland's largest mobile network. Other key customers of Followap included the

Vodafone Vodafone Group plc () is a British multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates services in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. , Vod ...

Group,

Hutchison 3G 3 or Three is a global brand name owned by Hutchison 3G Enterprises S.A.R.L., under which several UMTS-based mobile phone networks and broadband internet providers operate in Hong Kong, Macau, Austria, Denmark, Indonesia, Ireland, Sweden, and ...

Group,

BT Group BT Group plc ( trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, bro ...

Turkcell Turkcell İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. (''lit. Turkcell Communication Services'') (, ) is the leading mobile phone operator of Turkey, based in Istanbul. The company has 39,3 million subscribers as of September 2021. In 2015, the company's number o ...

Telecom Italia Gruppo TIM, legally TIM S.p.A. (formerly Telecom Italia S.p.A.), also known as the TIM Group in English, is an Italian telecommunications company with headquarters in Rome, Milan, and Naples, (with the Telecom Italia Tower) which provides fixed ...

, Wind and

Vimpelcom VEON Ltd. (formerly VimpelCom Ltd.) is a Dutch-domiciled multinational telecommunication services company. It predominantly operates services in the regions of Asia, Africa and Europe. It is the 13th largest mobile network operator in the wor ...

. The mobile Messenger which Followap pioneered evolved into extremely popular services following the introduction of the iPhone and App stores for wide-market distribution. These include Whatsapp, Line, QQ, WeChat and KakaoTalk. The company was acquired by NeuStar for approx. $140M in cash, in November 2006. Investors included Sequoia Capital and

Carmel Ventures Viola Ventures ( he, ויולה ונצ'רס), (formerly Carmel Ventures ( he, כרמל ונצ'רס)), established in 2000, is an Israeli venture capital fund with over $1.3 billion under management. History Viola Ventures is focused on early sta ...

References

{{reflist Telecommunications companies of the United Kingdom 2006 mergers and acquisitions