Back in 2006 a whole crop of VoIP app companies cropped up, each one trying to figure out how they can make a business out of voice, including in-fashion, if pointless forays such as embeddable widgets for social networks. One had to look really hard to find any difference. Their record so far is no different than that of baseball team, Tampa Bay Rays.Things are no different for those who are chasing Facebook elixir.
At least two of the companies are coming to their senses, and teaming up to focus on what they are good at: Jajah on its telephony platform and Jangl on social apps. As part of the deal, Jangl will start using Jajah’s telephony infrastructure, long distance and click-to-call features. Jangl, on the other hand will focus on developing social apps using voice, including some new services for its customers in the online dating business.
“We were going to build a click-to-call service, but since they already have that, and a billing infrastructure, it makes sense to partner with them,” said Michael Cerda, CEO of Jangl. He was candid and admitted that focusing “on stuff that a company is not good at can prove to be distracting and counterproductive.”
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18 comments so far
9:21 AM PT
Bravo! Good move by both companies and hopefully a sign of good things to come.
“At least two of the companies are coming to their senses, and teaming up to focus on what they are good at..” Well put Om.
Congratulations to Jajah and Jangle for finding this common ground!
11:00 AM PT
I really like jajah´s simplicity and this seems to be key in VoIP.
Check their vator-pitch:
http://www.vator.tv/pitch/show/JAJAH
Congrats.
1:34 PM PT
Don Thorson, Jajah marketing guy, congratulating his own company on a positive GigaOM post?
9:26 PM PT
I think it’s a great move for both the companies. It’s a good combination of application and platform. One thing missing is an operator with an ip backbone. I’m assuming jajah doesn’t have its own network. All that said, I still don’t understand jajah’s IPO plans. I guess this is some kind of PR hype to raise their valuation.
BTW, OM- thanks for adding my post to your article.
9:34 PM PT
Dan,
I think Don has moved on from jajah. he is with ribbit.
1:11 AM PT
[...] via Gigaom [...]
8:51 AM PT
I think Jajah is dying. Just look at their Alexa numbers for the last year. That’s a direct reflection of calls and callers. This announcement, the IPO baloney and the Talkster copycat move feel like desperate hype.
8:52 AM PT
Yep,
Sorry Dan., I should have been more clear. I haven’t updated all my profiles yet, but I left Jajah a couple of months ago, to join another next gen telephony company, Ribbit. (www.goribbit.com) that you’ll be hearing a lot about in the near future …But I’m still a huge Jajah fan, smart guys, great product.
Don
8:56 AM PT
Sam,
something i agree with. I think that is why focusing on what they do best makes sense. stay focused and they have a chance of making it. there is no exit plan here. IPO is just nonsense. it is tough times for all these new voice start-ups.
9:02 AM PT
A friend of mine in PR told me that Jajah has created a 200+ blog squad and that 99% of the Jajah coverage by blogs is manufactured. Is that true Don?
10:01 AM PT
Thanks for clarifying, Don. Update your LinkedIn!
11:21 AM PT
Sam.
Nope. The Jajah blogs are all organic. Frederik, who takes care of the social media / blog world at Jajah is one of the best there is at keeping the conversation going. And since the product is global and the team is global, they have a huge crowd to draw on. Check out the non-english blogs around Jajah - very impressive.
No fake blogging going on over there. They just work hard.
Don
3:11 PM PT
I have been following jajah for quite sometime now. These guys are just amazing when it comes to selling simple web based voice calling to the world. I don’t think any other company has such a niche compared to these guys. I guess they came up with a simple model called web calling, which to me, should have been a must feature for ip operators like vonage etc. Every “me too” out there in the market followed jajah model. Look’s like they are very aggressive in terms to positioning their company, whether it be partnering with other social networking companies or supporting new features.
5:00 AM PT
[...] upon us a whole new class of voice-web mashups. Instead all we got were some marginal ideas and rarely-used widgets. Voice, in particular, remained too difficult for web developers. In the end the two turned out to [...]
8:32 PM PT
[...] upon us a whole new class of voice-web mashups. Instead all we got were some marginal ideas and rarely-used widgets. Voice, in particular, remained too difficult for web developers. In the end the two turned out to [...]
3:48 PM PT
[...] Social Voice applications (Voice widgets). The only difference being that the VoIP widgets have high incidence of installs but comparatively low daily usage. App [...]
2:51 AM PT
[...] social voice applications (voice widgets). The only difference being that the VoIP widgets have high incidence of installs but comparatively low daily [...]
9:54 PM PT
[...] its network and back end billing and fulfillment infrastructure. It struck-up a partnership with Jangl back in November 2007. This managed services focus seems to got a big boost, thanks to a deal with Yahoo! Yahoo and Jajah [...]
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