In countries where international long-distance rates are high, mobile services like mig33’s mobile instant messenger and VoIP calls are starting to gain a sizable user base. The Burlingame, Calif. startup, which was an eTel/GigaOM Launch Pad startup, says it has signed up more than 7 million users to date and has added several new features, including Google Talk (GOOG).
The startup’s 7 million members and growing user base actually surprised me a bit — the company said it had 6 million members in July — given that its main approach is to use downloadable mobile software. Mobile clients can often be a barrier to entry when attempting to build a sizable amount of users, particularly for services that are supposed to save users money. For those that don’t want to download, the company also recently added a WAP site. Other mobile callback/calling type services that offer lower-cost minutes include Jajah and Cellity.
they might now have their main office in Burlingame, but they will always be a Western Australian company first :-)
These guys seem to keep getting it right, they have a great service which keep on getting better and it is no wonder they are picking up so many users!
I think the 7 million figure is incredible. Jajah much better known with a lot of publicity has after one and a half years 2+ million users for web activated telephony (no download!). 7 million is the same league as Skype in its early days!!
Who has heared of mig33 based in Perth Western Australia (until recently). The population of Australia is 20 million people. How do mig33 measure users?!
What are the manifestations of these 7 million. Do they crop up in forums and blogs or other public ways?
Richard, Mig33 has been around for several years and is already very well known (much better known than Jajah), they offer far more functionality than Skype or Jajah also from what I can see Mig33 is a global product and their user base apparently extends across 40 countries or more so your data on the #people in Australia is quite irrelevant.
Chris, if it was possible to do an objective count of mentions of Jajah and mentions of mig33 in web publications, press releases, magazines, forums, etc., I am willing to bet that Jajah would be way ahead of mig33.
I think both companies have been marketing for about the same time 2 – 3 years.
I mentioned the population of Australia as a point of reference. 7 million is a lot of people!
I have not used mig33, but I am sure their product is good, but claiming 7 million users IS incredible! What about my refernce to Skype numbers? There is a name on every one’s lips. So why haven’t we heared about mig33 until recently. The fact that they have users in 40 countries is meaningless. It could be a handfull in most of them.
A definition of a mig33 user would also be useful.
For what it is worth, a google search on “mig33″ gives 550,000 hits. A search on “jajah” gives 2.8 million. A search on “jajah” + “voip” gives 1.5 million.
Google search statistics aren’t worth anything. All that matters is how many active subscribers they have and no search engine will tell you that. If you want to know more I’d suggest you ask each of the companies involved how they generate their statistics.
According to my version of Google:
Jajah about 335,000 for jajah
Mig33 about 355,000 for mig33
Skype about 25,600,000 for skype
I’ll try both mig33 and jajah, although on intial comparison of features Mig33 seems to be a more useful tool for me.
Thanks for pointing these out!
well Chris, you really are a champion of mig33.
I couldn’t resist another google search even if we both think it isn’t worth much.
My google
“mig33+voip” gave 90,800
“jajah+voip” gave 1,720,000.
I think these products offer significantly different sets of features, so it is likely that one or the other is clearly best for an individual user. I am not trying to persuade you to give Jajah a go. I have tried it from my mobile and was not over impressed, and never got my question answered by their support.
But I still find 7 million mig33 users incredible.
Chris, I have just come across a web article (dated June 27) that says the mobile version of Skype for Widows Mobile has been downloaded more than 5 million times. I believe it has been around for two or so years.
To my mind this info makes the mig33 claim of 7m users even more incredible. Skype has an enormously bigger presence/brand awareness than mig33.
I have tried out Mig33 and now I understand why they would have 8million users! This service does much more than a Skype or Jajah, don’t take my word for it just try it out for yourself and I think you will understand.
I lake to be there in america!
I have tried mig33 too and I thats very nice.. I can connect with my friend with google talk.. great for mig33