5 ms·

The services that they're shutting down were all provided for free with no obvious source of significant revenue. If you were paying them and they were making

by omh 14y ago

The services that they're shutting down were all provided for free with no obvious source of significant revenue. If you were paying them and they were making a profit then you might have a better chance.

mibbitier 14y ago
> The services that they're shutting down were all provided for free with no obvious source of significant revenue. You mean like GMail? You would have at least thought they could integrate the MSN/AIM/Yahoo messenger etc into GMail.
- murz 14y ago
  AIM has been integrated in Gmail since 2007. http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/gmail-chat-aim-crazy-delicious.html http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/gmail-chat-aim-crazy-d...
  - streptomycin 14y ago
    You can unfortunately no longer log into an AIM account in Gmail and have those contacts appear like in the blog post you linked to. They got rid of that feature a couple years ago.
    - gcb 14y ago
      Bait and switch. The "cloud" really replaced "desktop computing"... And by cloud i mean Google and desktop Microsoft. But you knew that.
- benmccann 14y ago
  GMail has a pretty obvious source of revenue. But more importantly it's hugely strategically valuable. GMail is the #1 reason for people creating Google accounts. Google has a clear desire to have people signed in when performing searches and it lowers the barrier to adoption for it's other products such as Google Plus, Google Docs, etc.
- timdorr 14y ago
  GMail does make some direct revenue for Google (ads and paid storage), but it was (and probably still is) their #1 method for onboarding users to the Google Accounts system. And that gets them access to pay for all sorts of Google products. GMail has been key in growing Google's active user base.
mgkimsal 14y ago
I haven't looked in to this particular instance, but in general... why buy a company that has no significant revenue? It's not like it's some shock to google - "oh no, meebo doesn't make enough money!?" So... yeah, the services were provided 'free' in some sense, but meebo was able to continue running before this. Just... yeah.. buy stuff, shut it down. If it's not a significant source of revenue, it probably doesn't take a significant amount of cash to keep it running for another 6 months to a year. EDIT: I should have added, I understand the logical reasoning behind buying a company for its assets/talent. Doesn't mean it's not annoying.
- chrisguitarguy 14y ago
  > why buy a company that has no significant revenue? Because users are often just as if not more valuable than the money a company makes. Google probably bought Meebo because they thought the product was a good fit for their new social direction and because it already has a user base. As far as the services they're shutting down, most of them are in conflict with things Google+ does.
  - ricardobeat 14y ago
    If they are shutting down every user-facing service, how is the userbase relevant? From the news they're only interested in the Meebo Bar installed base, which are not end-users.
    - Luyt 14y ago
      The users are switched to Google services. They'll probably be privately emailed about it.
- ljd 14y ago
  I believe Meebo was purchased to become part of Google+ not to be an independently operated subsidiary of Google. This shutting down doesn't mean that Meebo will leave the internet space, it just means that the next time we'll see Meebo it'll be with a "Google+" logo on it. Larry Page has been shutting down and consolidating divisions of Google for the last 18 months. This appears to fit his strategy at the moment. Why pay for two chat divisions?
gcb 14y ago
Why did we started talking about facebook now?
pbreit 14y ago
> If you were paying them and they were making a profit then you might have a better chance. Not necessarily. A non-free service is unlikely to get enough traction to remain alive.
anonymoushn 14y ago
The entire IM client UI was one big ad. I'd be surprised if they couldn't make enough money to run the IM client by plastering a giant Best Buy elf across the screen, especially given that eBuddy makes its money in the same way.

by omh 14y ago

mibbitier 14y ago

> The services that they're shutting down were all provided for free with no obvious source of significant revenue. You mean like GMail? You would have at least thought they could integrate the MSN/AIM/Yahoo messenger etc into GMail.

murz 14y ago
AIM has been integrated in Gmail since 2007. http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/gmail-chat-aim-crazy-delicious.html http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/gmail-chat-aim-crazy-d...
- streptomycin 14y ago
  You can unfortunately no longer log into an AIM account in Gmail and have those contacts appear like in the blog post you linked to. They got rid of that feature a couple years ago.
  - gcb 14y ago
    Bait and switch. The "cloud" really replaced "desktop computing"... And by cloud i mean Google and desktop Microsoft. But you knew that.
benmccann 14y ago
GMail has a pretty obvious source of revenue. But more importantly it's hugely strategically valuable. GMail is the #1 reason for people creating Google accounts. Google has a clear desire to have people signed in when performing searches and it lowers the barrier to adoption for it's other products such as Google Plus, Google Docs, etc.
timdorr 14y ago
GMail does make some direct revenue for Google (ads and paid storage), but it was (and probably still is) their #1 method for onboarding users to the Google Accounts system. And that gets them access to pay for all sorts of Google products. GMail has been key in growing Google's active user base.

mgkimsal 14y ago

I haven't looked in to this particular instance, but in general... why buy a company that has no significant revenue? It's not like it's some shock to google - "oh no, meebo doesn't make enough money!?" So... yeah, the services were provided 'free' in some sense, but meebo was able to continue running before this. Just... yeah.. buy stuff, shut it down. If it's not a significant source of revenue, it probably doesn't take a significant amount of cash to keep it running for another 6 months to a year. EDIT: I should have added, I understand the logical reasoning behind buying a company for its assets/talent. Doesn't mean it's not annoying.

chrisguitarguy 14y ago
> why buy a company that has no significant revenue? Because users are often just as if not more valuable than the money a company makes. Google probably bought Meebo because they thought the product was a good fit for their new social direction and because it already has a user base. As far as the services they're shutting down, most of them are in conflict with things Google+ does.
- ricardobeat 14y ago
  If they are shutting down every user-facing service, how is the userbase relevant? From the news they're only interested in the Meebo Bar installed base, which are not end-users.
  - Luyt 14y ago
    The users are switched to Google services. They'll probably be privately emailed about it.
ljd 14y ago
I believe Meebo was purchased to become part of Google+ not to be an independently operated subsidiary of Google. This shutting down doesn't mean that Meebo will leave the internet space, it just means that the next time we'll see Meebo it'll be with a "Google+" logo on it. Larry Page has been shutting down and consolidating divisions of Google for the last 18 months. This appears to fit his strategy at the moment. Why pay for two chat divisions?

gcb 14y ago

Why did we started talking about facebook now?

pbreit 14y ago

> If you were paying them and they were making a profit then you might have a better chance. Not necessarily. A non-free service is unlikely to get enough traction to remain alive.

anonymoushn 14y ago

The entire IM client UI was one big ad. I'd be surprised if they couldn't make enough money to run the IM client by plastering a giant Best Buy elf across the screen, especially given that eBuddy makes its money in the same way.