Dutch startup Nimbuzz , which bills itself as the “mobile Skype” have just announced an IM application for Android phones which ties together multiple messaging tools (Skype, MSM, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, etc.) via a single interface. The app is now available for download.
The Nimbuzz trump card is Skype VOIP. Unfortunately the Android app doesn’t yet include this but it is available in the iPhone app. The Android application also supports many local social networks like Hyves (dominant in the Netherlands) and a nifty time-sensitive user interface which does things like detecting how long a user presses on a contact; a quick click opens the contact’s profile while a long click opens a chat window.
Nimbuzz has also released to us the results of a survey of 21,000 users which reveals some interesting differences in how people in different parts of the world communicate. In Europe and the US, users want to check who is online as well as indicate their own presence and tend to mainly communicate with people they already know. In APAC and the Middle East users communicate with a higher number of people (over 15 in APAC) and are considerably more open to meeting new people in chatrooms. In fact, globally, 53.3% of Nimbuzz users communicate with people they have met online and 59.1% have made more online friends since joining Nimbuzz, though whether that is directly down to Nimbuzz is debatable.
When it comes to IM clients, strangely enough MSN is dominant in Europe while Facebook chat claims a large chunk of American users. Chat is used by the majority but VOIP is catching up especially in the Middle East and North Africa. Another significant, and related, difference is the networks being used to access the mobile Internet. Wi-Fi is the majority choice in the US and Europe while GPRS is still dominant in APAC (68%) demonstrating that market’s continuing love affair with mobile networks. 
Currently most users are the prototypical “early adopters”, 41% of which already use mobile Internet daily. However, one trend which could signal that Nimbuzz is headed for the mass market is the rapid increase in female users. Until very recently the user base was 97% male and this has dropped to 85%. In fact, in the Middle East, the majority of users are single women who favour VOIP over chat. Since Nimbuzz is adding 1 million users a month, the company is rapidly becoming a serious force in this market to rival the likes of eBuddy (which itself just passed 1.2 million downloads a week from GetJar) and Meebo. Personally, I would keep an eye on whoever manages to enthrall those all-important female users.
yet another chatting app on Android…. boooooring. What is currently missing are good VoIP and especially SIP applications. Reading the title of the article, I was hoping a bit more
FonoSIP.com Android SIP Client Install, Config and Reviews
http://fonosip.com/english/sipdroid.html
Is this thing just web-based? Cause that’s all I’m seeing, which is truly boring. Anyone seeing this in the market?
Great post. It is interesting to see how technology we take for granted are utilized in other parts of the world. I was also surprised with MSN.
last time i checked, touching a contact in my contacts brings up their info but long touching brings up a contextual menu of which i can choose to SMS/Text that person. nothing new. it’s built into android. not a feature of the app.
Just checked on the G1 Market (UK). Nothing appeared under Nimbuzz. Also – the website doesn’t seem to support the HTC G1. So I’m not sure how this has been apparently marked as a newly released Android App.
The Android app is not actually coming out for another week or so.
I just got the same tweet from Nimbuzz too!
Vopium has already released their client for Android G1 devices and now with Nimbuzz client user can enjoy IM on them.
You dont have to be an online marketing expert to know that there is NO freaking way they can add 1 mill user per month. Count the users, not downloads.
Checked this with Nimbuzz. They maintain that they are indeed talking about nearly 1 million registered new users – not downloads – per month. Feel free to drop their head of communications (Tobias Kemper) a line at tobias at nimbuzz dot com for more info.
The Android client is out now so have updated the post accordingly