Interview: BeeJive’s Kai Yu on free downloads, mobile IM, and the iPhone

When it comes to mobile instant messaging, is it possible to improve on the iPhone or Blackberrry? We spoke with Kai Yu, president of BeeJive, whose JiveTalk is considered one of the best instant messaging applications for the Blackberry and iPhone – and unlike many mobile applications, it’s not free. (The iPhone isn’t free either, last I checked).

How does JiveTalk work?
Yu: JiveTalk is a multi-protocol mobile IM service that connects to most of the major public IM networks. We support AIM, MSN, Yahoo, GoogleTalk, ICQ, Jabber, and just added MySpace IM. JiveTalk allows the user to sign on to all of their IM accounts simultaneously from their mobile device, and stay connected at all times. In terms of software components JiveTalk consists of a client application and a server gateway. The client on the mobile device connects to the server gateway, which handles all connections to IM servers and other peers.

With so many free mobile applications, why did you choose to charge for Jive-Talk?
Yu: In order to develop and continue to improve the software, and to provide the right level of support for the service, we have to be viable as a company. Mobile advertising is not quite mature enough yet, but down the road this may change. Things are moving pretty quickly in this space, so we are always looking for better strategies.

Do you think most mobile developers really shouldn’t be releasing their products as free applications?
Yu: To some extent that’s true, though it depends on the application and the level of support required. I will say that it’s somewhat irresponsible to release an application and not back it up with the requisite bug fixes, enhancements, and support. In the end both the product and the company needs to be viable, both for the user’s sake and for the developer’s sake.
It’s a lot easier for someone like Google to offer free services to the end user, both because they can afford to and because they get paid back in user retention and potential ad-revenue down the road. For the independent developer, that’s not really possible.

What can your product do that your competitors don’t?
Yu: Our application is more reliable and easier to use. The reliability is a big part of it – our BlackBerry application is able to maintain connectivity to the server and handle all sorts of network disruptions. Feature wise we’re leaps ahead of the free apps and most for-pay apps. For example, we provide native file transfer support where someone can drag and drop a MP3 onto a desktop AIM or MSN client and have it sent directly to your BlackBerry; we offer MySpace IM support; we’re adding buddy icons and group chat support (we offer free software upgrades).

What is your business model?
Yu: Right now we’re a traditional consumer software company, much closer to someone like Adobe or Symantec than an internet startup. As I mentioned earlier, that may change over time.

Why did you choose to develop your product for the Blackberry and the iPhone first? Do you plan to offer versions for other mobile devices, besides the Blackberry and the iPhone?
Yu: Mobile IM works best on a QWERTY phone with a reliable data connection. BlackBerry and iPhone are probably leaders in this space today. We are planning to release versions for most devices that fit the above description; for example, Windows Mobile and Series 60.

How is your iPhone client working out? When will you go from alpha to beta?
Yu: It’s going well so far, but it’s very early in the game. We have over 50,000 users, so that’s a decent number, considering there has been less than 1 million units sold so far. Originally we planned to make the product just as reliable as our BlackBerry version, but currently we’re limited by what’s possible in mobile Safari. Since we are still looking for alternative ways to give users the equivalent functionality – always-on, message alerts, etc., we’re going to keep it at alpha a while longer. We’ve made 6 updates since our first release for the iPhone, and from a product quality perspective we have been beta-level for quite some time now.

What do you think about FlickIM, eBuddy, Meebo, and Mundu?
Yu: These are our direct competitors in the iPhone space. We released our product first and we think it’s still the best browser-based IM solution for the iPhone, even after the updated releases from our competitors. This seems to be the general consensus in the blogs reviews as well (look up our reviews on MacWorld or Engadget or the BoyGeniusReport, etc.). JiveTalk currently handles reconnects and suspends better than any of the four. It also blends in much better with the native look and feel of the iPhone, which is obviously something we went for. Out of the four we think FlickIM is the most reliable service, but it’s limited to AIM and its interface isn’t as clean as Meebo’s. Meebo has a really clean UI, but doesn’t handle networking problems very well. Mundu is very good. eBuddy is probably our least favorite. Competition is a good thing, it gives users more choice and pushes developers like us to make our products better.

Michael M.