Skype has acquired group messaging startup GroupMe for a rumored $85 million. The deal, while a good move on paper, isn’t going to be enough, as Skype itself is going through an identity crisis — whether it wants to be a consumer or an enterprise communications company.
Skype announced that it is acquiring GroupMe, just a year after the group-messaging startup officially launched to the public. While Skype has been focused on adding video calling to its mobile applications, the GroupMe buy gives it expertise in the text-based group-messaging field.
GroupMe, a top contender in the group messaging app space, was born out of a hackathon but managed to find success by executing on its vision. The founders sat down with me and looked back at how the first year has gone since the service launched.
Hot group messaging startup GroupMe is dealing with a trademark dispute from a fellow New York startup called Groupie, which is opposing GroupMe’s trademark application on the grounds that the names are too similar. The case highlights the rising competition in the group messaging market.
I’ve been playing with Google+ on my Android handset to get a sense of what it has to offer. The verdict: Google made some thoughtful decisions for mobile users for the Google+ service overall, but Huddle isn’t as intuitive as other group texting platforms.
Synchronous communications like mobile group chat are the latest battleground in the war over unified communications, and despite what the startups say, they won’t be contenders in the race to build a single, unified hub.
New York start-ups GroupMe and Fast Society, which both rolled out in the last couple months, are tapping into our phone contact lists to provide people with a simple way to coordinate and communicate with a small pack of roving friends.
