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Beeper acquired by Automattic

blog.beeper.com

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Re: Beeper acquired by Automattic

#61

Post by regularjack »

blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #49

I wonder what the angle is here. Is Automattic going to help them fight a legal battle against Apple’s practices with locking down their computing devices and platforms? Do they even have the resources for that? Or is this just an acquihire and abandonment of that whole messaging thing?

Beeper is a unified messaging app that supports multiple services, the iMessage thing was a separate app called Beeper Mini.

I think Beeper will continue to be useful to people, regardless of whether it supports iMessage or not. Obviously, supporting iMessage would be a big plus, but from what I gather, many people use it for other services.

Re: Beeper acquired by Automattic

#62

Post by gwerbret »

erohead wrote: post #36

Exciting day for Beeper! It all started here on HN 3 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25848278

> Exciting day for Beeper!

Congratulations on your successful exit, but is it actually an exciting day for Beeper? Your product has been assimilated into something of a behemoth, whose goals (in spite of the text of your announcement) aren't necessarily those of a free and open internet through open communication protocols. Do you foresee a five-year timeline in which anti-monopoly legislation forces an opening up of the WhatsApp/iMessage/Messenger walled gardens? And if that were to happen, do you foresee Beeper still existing as a standalone product? Do you foresee there actually being a need for Beeper versus, say, a rejuvenated (and very open) Pidgin?

Yeah, neither do I...although I do prefer to be optimistic.

Re: Beeper acquired by Automattic

#63

Post by drkleiner »

nicce wrote: post #50
kilroy123 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I paid $120 up front. I'm worried they'll switch to a monthly subscription after this.

Since texts.com has subscription and rumor says that they are merged, just a matter of time.

> Our teams and products will merge

From the article, not a rumor.

Re: Beeper acquired by Automattic

#64

Post by afavour »

wokwokwok wrote: post #58
mvkel wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes automattic gullible?

I mean, maybe the reality is more nuanced but the optics… > Matt, Automattic’s CEO, and I have known each other for years. He was an early user, supporter and investor in Beeper It certainly sounds like… Beeper was in the bin after the beeper mini fiasco, and resulting massive brand damage (brand aweness is only good if it means people actually want to use your product, not active distrust it), so the friend and earl…

> Beeper was in the bin after the beeper mini fiasco, and resulting massive brand damage

I don't think that's true at all. I'd never heard of Beeper before their integration with iMessage and the fact that it was disabled by Apple was seen as a negative on Apple, not Beeper. They raised their profile, now they're cashing out.

Re: Beeper acquired by Automattic

#65

Post by erohead »

gwerbret wrote: post #62
erohead wrote: post #36

Exciting day for Beeper! It all started here on HN 3 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25848278

> Exciting day for Beeper! Congratulations on your successful exit, but is it actually an exciting day for Beeper? Your product has been assimilated into something of a behemoth, whose goals (in spite of the text of your announcement) aren't necessarily those of a free and open internet through open communication protocols. Do you foresee a five-year timeline in which anti-monopoly legislation forces an opening up of…

If you've followed Beeper, you know that roughly 50% of our product is already open source (https://github.com/beeper). You can run your own Matrix server and use our bridges, or self-host the bridges and use Beeper clients (https://github.com/beeper/bridge-manager). For all intents and purposes, Beeper _is_ the rejuvenated and very open Pidgin.

Automattic is a fantastic home for us. We needed a home (or new investors) to keep working on Beeper.

Re: Beeper acquired by Automattic

#68

Post by PaulHoule »

markx2 wrote: post #57

"Matt, Automattic’s CEO, and I have known each other for years. He was an early user, supporter and investor in Beeper. " Beeper were not important enough to be listed: https://audrey.co/ "Our privacy policy and terms of service remain the same, though they may change in the future." Reminder: wordpress.com shares data with 851 other companies.

How does Automattic make money? Do they get paid to look the other way when people’s Wordpress blogs get spammed by SEO links?

Re: Beeper acquired by Automattic

#69

Post by nikanj »

theamk wrote: post #14
eugenekolo wrote: post #7

Smart of Beeper to accept an acquisition/exit as soon as possible before their product gets further eroded by non-public APIs they're reliant on. Tough to build a business where at any time your product can get wiped out by Apple/Meta.

I would not be surprised if this was their plan from day 1: (1) Create a product which relies on non-public APIs which can be disabled at any time. (2) Generate lots of press visibility. (3) Sell itself to some gullible org before the whole thing comes crashing down.

My theory is Beeper being a sacrificial lamb so Google/Samsung can cry to EU about iMessage. ”See they’re restricting this poor little startup from competing! Pay no attention to the funding coming from Samsung, this is definitely a poor underdog of a company!”
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