I chat with Arathorn pretty regularly and I'm quite sure that we're not competitors, at least not yet . Beeper is focused in hosting and maintaining bridges between Matrix and other networks. EMS is vanilla Matrix hosting.
Work on Element Home predates Beeper's launch by a few months, and is in no way a response to it. EMS does have some paid bridges too, but the emphasis is on the Matrix rather than the bridging, unlike Beeper.
Hasn't this offer already been existing for a while?
Maybe. If so, I wasn’t aware. I always thought the cheapest plan was pricier than €10.