eBuddy is a privately held Dutch software company that offers

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of synchronous computer-mediated communication involving the immediate ( real-time) transmission of messages between two or more parties over the Internet or another computer network. Originally involv ...

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

cross-platform Within 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 platform, computing platforms. Some ...

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 share their location. XMS is available for

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

, Nokia

Series 40 Nokia Series 40 Platform, often shortened as S40, is a software platform and application user interface (UI) software that was previously used on Nokia's broad range of mid-tier feature phones from 2002 to 2014, as well as on some of the Vertu l ...

, and

Windows Phone 7 Windows Phone 7 (WP7) 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 serves as the successo ...

devices. There is also a

web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

-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 The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties. It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...

'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 ke ...

), the code is not open to independent review (i.e. the code is not

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

), the security design is not properly documented, and there has not been a recent independent security audit.

AIM AIM or Aim may refer to: Computing * AIM alliance, an Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance * AIM (software), AOL Instant Messenger * Fortyfive, a Japanese software development company previously known as AIM Military * Abrams Integrated Management, an ...

BlackBerry Messenger BBM, also known by its full name BlackBerry Messenger, was a consumer-oriented proprietary mobile instant messenger and videotelephony application service originally developed by BlackBerry Limited and later briefly by Indonesian company Emtek ...

Hushmail Hushmail is an encrypted proprietary web-based email service offering PGP-encrypted e-mail and vanity domain service. Hushmail uses OpenPGP standards. If public encryption keys are available to both recipient and sender (either both are Hu ...

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

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

Viber Rakuten Viber, commonly known as 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 Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, mac ...

, and

Yahoo Messenger Yahoo! Messenger (sometimes abbreviated Y!M) was an instant messaging client (computing), client and associated protocol created and formerly operated by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger was provided free of charge and could be downloaded and used with ...

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, formerly known as Facebook Messenger, is an American proprietary software, proprietary instant messaging service developed by Meta Platforms. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the Client software, client application ...

MSN MSN is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps provided by Microsoft. The main webpage provides news, weather, sports, finance and other content curated from hundreds of different sources that Microsoft has partnere ...

Google Talk Google Talk was an instant messaging service that provided both text and voice communication. The instant messaging service was variously referred to colloquially as Gchat, Gtalk, or Gmessage among its users. Google Talk was also the name o ...

ICQ ICQ was a cross-platform instant messaging (IM) and VoIP client founded in June 1996 by Yair Goldfinger, Sefi Vigiser, Amnon Amir, Arik Vardi, and Arik's father, Yossi Vardi. The name ICQ derives from the English phrase "I Seek You". Originally ...

and

AOL AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. The service traces its history to an online ...

accounts to chat free of charge in one aggregated interface. eBuddy Chat supported a

Web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

interface and also supported

J2ME Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is a computing platform for development and deployment of porting, portable code for embedded system, embedded and mobile devices (micro-controllers, sensors, gateways, mobile phones, personal digita ...

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 MSN), later rebranded as Windows Live Messenger, was a Cross-platform software, cross-platform instant messaging client, instant-messaging client developed by Microsoft. It connected to the now-di ...

, as it was named in 2003, for a

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

. 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 ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, with offices in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, United States., after a successful partnership with Japanese-based GREE, eBuddy was sold via an acqui-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 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 is one of the largest online travel agencies. It is headquartered in Amsterdam, and is a subsidiary of Booking Holdings. Booking.com provides lodging reservation services for approximately 3.4 million properties, including 475,000 ...

bought eBuddy in an

acqui-hire Acqui-hiring (a portmanteau of "acquisition" and "hiring") is the Mergers and acquisitions, acquisition of startups or other small companies primarily to acquire human capital. The term ''acqui-hire'' was coined in 2005. The phenomenon gained wides ...

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