EBuddy

eBuddy is a privately held Dutch software company that offers instant messaging services. The company's flagship service is XMS, a proprietary cross-platform instant messaging service. The company is backed by Prime Technology Ventures and Lowland Capital Partners. It is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and has offices in Singapore and San Francisco, USA.

XMS
XMS is a proprietary instant messaging service. In a 2011 review, the head of the BerryReview team mentioned that the service was not truly unique; he wrote that it "has pretty much the same features as all the other cross platform messengers". It does include some multimedia features: users can send images and videos, and can share their location. XMS is available for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Nokia Series 40, and Windows Phone 7 devices. There is also a web-based client, called "Web XMS", for computer users.

Various competing services exist. Some, such as Google Talk, are more open and offer users more freedom from lock-in.

eBuddy Chat
eBuddy Chat is a line of multi-protocol instant messaging clients: it allows users with Facebook Chat, MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ and AOL accounts to chat free of charge in one aggregated interface. eBuddy Chat supports a Web interface and also supports iOS, Android, J2ME and mobile Web-enabled devices.

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, as it was named in 2003, for a mobile phone. 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.
 * On September 9, 2003, Taylor, together with two partners Jan-Joost Rueb and Onno Bakker, created EverywhereMSN.com.
 * On December 4, 2003, the domain name was changed to e-messenger.net.
 * On May 1, 2004, e-Messenger became incorporated.
 * 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, 2011, Japanese gaming company GREE acquired a minority stake in eBuddy.
 * On December 4, 2013, Dutch online booking portal booking.com bought eBuddy in an acqui-hire agreement