MessageBird is the latest company to challenge Twilio in the marketplace. This European company earned more than $60 million during its first round of financing, which is one of the most significant Series A investments in history.
While there are plenty of significant differences between Twilio and MessageBird, they’re both fighting on the same field, as they both offer companies a platform for cloud-based communications that allows them to use APIs to bring messaging and chat into their own products, AKA CPaaS. Although MessageBird hasn’t had the same media attention as Twilio, it does have plenty of potential ahead.
What Can MessageBird Offer?
MessageBird, like Twilio, provides a chat API that allows companies to integrate popular messaging services into their third-party websites or apps. The messaging API also allows for SMS-in-app communications, while a video API is currently in the final stages of beta testing. Now that MessageBird has another $60 million to play with, they’ll also be launching their Voice API, which has been available in beta for several weeks, allowing businesses to integrate voice calling into their services.
Many of these services are similar to what Twilio offers already, but that hasn’t stopped MessageBird from being successful. In fact, the company claims that it has been profitable from the beginning and that it’s on track to hit more than $100 million in revenue this year. Additionally, MessageBird announced that it already has more than 15,000 customers around the world, including Heineken, Huawei, and DoorDash. One particularly important name in the roster is Uber – a customer that Twilio recently lost, causing stocks to plummet.
The MessageBird Focus
According to Robert Vis, the CEO of MessageBird, the company works with businesses who can’t afford to compromise on their communication strategy. One of the biggest components of MessageBird’s strategy is it’s carrier partnerships, which contribute to a total of around 220 different carrier integrations around the world. Thanks to its own carrier infrastructure, the brand can connect to the core of mobile carriers around the world. This helps them to bypass legacy systems that take chances on reliability.
Ultimately, the more entities that get involved taking a message from A to B, the more likely delays will be. According to Vis, numerous entities can create a game of Chinese Whispers between companies, where quality and accuracy begins to struggle.
According to MessageBird, the brand will be focusing on making new hires in customer support and thinking about acquisition options across Asia, the US, and Europe. It’s hard to say whether the brand will come out ahead of Twilio, but the rise of MessageBird does mean that Twilio now has another reason to watch its back.
