Google acquires RCS provider Jibe Mobile

Google Inc. acquired startup Jibe Mobile, committing to a new messaging standard as the search giant tries to get its vast mobile ecosystem to select a few basic technologies as the foundation for future software.

Mobile messaging has never been more central to people’s lives, and there is an incredible amount of innovation happening with chat applications across the mobile ecosystem.

Google acquires companies from time to time, but we don’t generally hear much about why, which is why Google announcing the acquisition of a company on the Android blog is a bit different.

Along with the RCS driver, the Jibe team are joining Google, indicating (although not specifically said) that Google has just expanded its Cloud offering to specific services catering for mobile operators and related communications platforms; what demand is like in this space isn’t clear but given Jibe’s already impressive client list it’s a space that may present strong opportunities for Google going forward. RCS with features like group chats, photos and videos, brings to SMS features familiar with the features of instant messaging services.

Where does Jibe Mobile fit in? According to Juniper Research, OTT challengers cost communication service providers an estimated $14 billion in lost text messaging and voice revenues in 2014. We then introduced the Jibe model to put carrier messaging in the cloud and flip the infrastructure business model upside down. Jibe is a leading provider of RCS services and they’ll continue helping carriers easily deploy RCS to their users. But one could argue that this is exactly what the industry has needed.

I want to thank all our customers, directors/advisors, and investors/lenders for not only supporting but keeping us focused. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major glob…