GroupMe is a pretty cool company that was born out of TechCrunch Disrupt. The company created a simple way to create SMS-based groups so people could easily communicate with and manage their social circles. Currently, the app uses the Twilio API, but it could leverage other APIs such as BBM, in order to add more contacts to the group and communicate outside of the US. The company has announced recently that their GroupMe app is now available on BlackBerry in beta form.
I sat down with Derek Ting, CEO of Enflick, the makers of PingChat! to talk about their 8M strong app. The guys at Enflick have a strong team and the founders are all in their early 20s. Not too long ago, the company announced some metrics about their PingChat! app that are incredibly impressive.
One of the more interesting aspects of PingChat!, which we discuss in the video, is that the fact that Enflick is able to support a network of 8M users sending media to each other with just 2 revenue sources. The in-app ads in their iOS and Android builds, as well as some revenue from another app they sell, is all the money they need for infrastructure. A great example of leveraging ads and a product portfolio to grow your business.
Keep in mind that while this is posted on YouTube, there’s not much to see in the video; it’s all in the audio. If there’s any interest in these, I can post more with other companies in the near future. Hit the jump to check out an infographic about PingChat’s success. Continue reading ‘Derek Ting, CEO of Enflick, Talks About Their 8M User-Base IM Client’
PingChat is a free text, picture and video messaging app that’s available for BlackBerry, Android and iPhone. The app has been incredibly successful over the past two years, and has grown to more than 8 million active users with over 400% growth in 2010. The app is developed by some talented and young guys out of Waterloo and their CEO is just 22 years old. PingChat is representative of why the mobile industry is so awesome right now: young, talented, engineers, making compelling products used all around the world. Never in history has there been this much innovation by such a young demographic.
Meebo is a web service that integrates all your social networks and communications in a single portal. Recently, Meebo launched their service in a BlackBerry app that is currently in beta. The app lets you connect and manage your Meebo account while mobile, and chat with friends from a number of different communication networks across the web including AIM, Yahoo!, Google, Facebook and more.
The beta Meebo app is free to download and you can test the beta at meebo.com/blackberry/.
Ditto Turns your BlackBerry into an SMS chat room by allowing you to text multiple people. The app also gives you control of identities and chat permissions of the participants. If you and your friends text message a lot, this app could be fun.
