MessageMe

MessageMe was a messaging app and platform for the iPhone and Android. It launched in March 2013 and grew to 5 million users within 3 months.[1] The app allowed users to send and receive videos, photos, stickers[2], and voice messages in addition to text.[3].

MessageMe
Software
Founded2012
FoundersArjun Sethi, Alexander Chee, Justin Rosenthal, Vivek Tatineni
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California, United States
Websitemessageme.com

MessageMe was acquired and shutdown by Yahoo in 2014[4] for a price rumored between $30 million and $40 million.[5]

History

MessageMe was founded in 2012 in by Arjun Sethi, Alexander Chee, Justin Rosenthal and Vivek Tatineni and based out of San Francisco, California. It raised a $1.9 million seed round from First Round Capital, Google Ventures, SV Angel and Andreessen Horowitz, among others.[6]

It launched in March 2013 on iOS and Android and reached 1 million users within 10 days.[7] In May 2013, MessageMe announced that it raised an additional $10 million in funding from Greylock Partners and that Greylock partner John Lilly had joined the board of directors.[8]

MessageMe reached 5 million users within 75 days of launch.[7]

Controversy

Shortly after MessageMe's March 2013 launch, Facebook revoked MessageMe's access to the Facebook Platform's "Find Friends" functionality that allowed MessageMe users to connect to Facebook and find their Facebook friends on MessageMe.[9][10] Facebook cited its policy that allowed it to revoke access to developers who "replicate[] a core Facebook product or service without [Facebook's] permission." [9][11] Leaked internal discussions showed that Facebook revoked MessageMe's access over concern that MessageMe was becoming too popular and competitive with Facebook messaging.[12][13]

In an internal March 2013 email thread, Justin Osofsky, former Facebook director of platform partnerships, wrote:

In the first week after launch, MessageMe actually didn't make any friends.get calls. However, MessageMe is now up to ~350K MAU and made 333K friends calls last week. We will restrict their access to friends.get shortly. In terms of next steps, Monika is working with Mike Nowak to see if there are any other messenger apps which have hit the growth team's radar recently. If so, we'd like to restrict them at the same time to group this into one press cycle.[14]

In 2018, the question of Facebook's use of platform data in anticompetitive ways against companies like MessageMe, Vine[15] and Voxer resurfaced as part of the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal.[16] At the same time that Facebook cut off data to apps like MessageMe, it shared private user data with important Facebook partners like Amazon, Netflix and Spotify.[17][18]

In December 2018, Facebook officially ended the platform policy it used to revoke MessageMe's platform access.[19]

Features

MessageMe along with WhatsApp, Kik and others led the movement of mobile messaging in the United States away from text-based SMS and towards richer text messaging which included audio, video, doodles, stickers, location and more in addition to text.[20] Global startups that led this trend included WeChat in China, Line in Japan, and KakaoTalk in Korea.[21][20]

Messaging apps like MessageMe, Path and Lango were the first to bring stickers to the United States mobile messaging market.[2] Line's success with stickers in Asia inspired those apps to bring stickers to the United States.[22][23] MessageMe offered free and paid sticker packs that could be purchased through the app.[24]

Acquisition

Yahoo acquired MessageMe for between $30 million and $40 million in October 2014.[4] Other potential acquirers were Snapchat and Truecaller.[25]

The acquisition happened as part of CEO Marissa Mayer's strategy of reinvigorating legacy products by acquiring top startup talent via small acquisitions.[26] Yahoo bought startups like MessageMe, shut down their products and then put those teams to work on existing or new Yahoo products.[27]

In July 2015, Yahoo launched its first mobile messaging app, Livetext, which was built internally by the MessageMe team on top of MessageMe technology.[28] Yahoo shut down Livetext in March 2016.[29]

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References
  1. "Just 75 days after launch, MessageMe says it now has 5 million users". May 21, 2013.
  2. Wortham, Jenna (March 9, 2013). "Online Emotions, in Hundreds of New Flavors". The New York Times.
  3. "MessageMe adds stickers and camera features to its iOS mobile messaging app". www.adweek.com.
  4. "Yahoo Acquires Mobile Messaging App MessageMe".
  5. Murphy, By David; October 4, 2014 3:20PM EST; October 4, 2014. "Yahoo Beats Snapchat to the Punch With MessageMe Acquisition". PCMAG.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. "MessageMe Seeded With $1.9M for Messaging App". Wall Street Journal. March 19, 2013 – via www.wsj.com.
  7. "MessageMe chat app amasses 5 million users in 75 days across Android and iOS". Engadget.
  8. "MessageMe Raises A $10M Series A Led By Greylock As It Gears Up For Money And Premium Services In Its Rich Messaging App".
  9. "Facebook Brings Down The Hammer Again: Cuts Off MessageMe's Access To Its Social Graph".
  10. Rusli, Evelyn M. (March 19, 2013). "Tensions Rise Between Facebook, Developers". Wall Street Journal – via www.wsj.com.
  11. Li, Anita. "Facebook Stops MessageMe Users From Finding Friends". Mashable.
  12. "Thousands of leaked Facebook documents show Mark Zuckerberg as 'master of leverage' in plan to trade user data". NBC News.
  13. "Leaked documents show Facebook leveraged user data to fight rivals and help friends". NBC News.
  14. Facebook sealed exhibits in Six4Three v. Facebook
  15. Murphy, By David; March 17, 2013 4:28PM EST; March 17, 2013. "MessageMe Gets Vine'd; Facebook Pulls Access to Friend-Finding". PCMAG.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  16. "Facebook shouldn't block you from finding friends on competitors".
  17. Ng, Alfred. "Facebook used your data as 'bargaining chip' against rivals, report says". CNET.
  18. Cox, Kate (2019). "Massive Facebook document leak gives ammunition to investigators". Ars Technica.
  19. "Facebook ends platform policy banning apps that copy its features".
  20. "The war for mobile messaging is on". Los Angeles Times. May 11, 2013.
  21. "American Copycat: MessageMe is Just a Clone of Popular Asian Chat Apps". www.techinasia.com.
  22. Grove, Jennifer Van. "MessageMe jumps on sticker bandwagon". CNET.
  23. Russell, Jon (October 3, 2013). "Why are Messaging Apps Selling Stickers?". The Next Web.
  24. Russell, Jon (August 8, 2013). "MessageMe Introduces Stickers to its Messaging App". The Next Web.
  25. "Snapchat Wanted MessageMe Before Yahoo Bought It For Up To $30-$40M".
  26. Kleeman, Sophie. "Here's What Happened To All 53 of Marissa Mayer's Yahoo Acquisitions". Gizmodo.
  27. Yahoo’s Other Challenge: Retaining Acquired Talent
  28. Goel, Vindu (July 29, 2015). "Yahoo Offers New Mobile Chat Service Featuring Silent Video".
  29. Ciaccia, Chris (June 8, 2018). "End of an era: Yahoo Messenger is being shut down next month". Fox News.
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