Oh, Yoomba, we hardly knew you. To be honest, we didn't know you at all until VentureBeat declared you had shut your doors. "Looks to me like it's just another IM/VoIP client, but with an auto-add-all-your-contacts-and-spam-them `feature.'," said one user quoted by PC Week of Canada in 2007.
Funded by Global Catalyst Partners and US Venture Partners and with 20 employees at one point, Silicon Valley-based Yoomba had the typical profile of the me-too VoIP app crowd - the "disruptive approach," being able to send and receive phone calls and IM through email programs, off-shore development centers (Israel) and so forth. Unlike most of the me-too crowd, Yoomba apparently didn't get to the "dial-out to the PSTN/cheap long-distance minutes" phase of the plan before they ran out of money.
Looking back through Google News, the service reportedly racked up a user base of 500,000 people less than a month after a mid-July launch, but it doesn't look like they managed to hold onto any of them for monetization. There's also the cloud over how Yoomba might have signed up those folks, since early users complained the service spammed their entire contact lists in an aggressive opt-in approach.
Monday 2 February 2009
Yoomba latest in wave of VoIP closures
Yoomba, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based company that let users send and receive phone calls and instant messages through their email programs, has shut its doors, reports VentureWire — continuing the trend of VoIP consolidations and failures that has emptied a once crowded space.
There was a fairly salient flaw in Yoomba’s business model — users could only call others who had downloaded the program, and its market share just wasn’t big enough to make it work.
The company, which has already taken down its web site, had taken undisclosed funding from Global Catalyst Partners and US Venture Partners.
There was a fairly salient flaw in Yoomba’s business model — users could only call others who had downloaded the program, and its market share just wasn’t big enough to make it work.
The company, which has already taken down its web site, had taken undisclosed funding from Global Catalyst Partners and US Venture Partners.
Thursday 29 January 2009
Jaxtr India Numbers shutdown (illegal usage)
Jaxtr launched it’s VoIP service in India, around 7 months back and the service has now been shutdown due to illegal usage.
This is what Jaxtr mail reads as:
Strange that Indian govt. took 7 months to figure out that Jaxtr’s India number isn’t legal? Or simply that they were losing a lot of money and shut it down themselves ...
This is what Jaxtr mail reads as:
We have been informed that the Indian Department of Telecommunication has disabled all our local jaxtr numbers in India. Any call placed using one of these disabled numbers will not be connected. We are working very hard to reactivate these numbers so we can continue offering you our excellent services. We apologize for any inconveniences and will let you know as soon as the issue has been resolved. Should you have further questions, please contact our Customer Support department at: support@jaxtr.com. - The jaxtr team
Strange that Indian govt. took 7 months to figure out that Jaxtr’s India number isn’t legal? Or simply that they were losing a lot of money and shut it down themselves ...
Wednesday 19 November 2008
Rebtel = Spam
Attention: Rebtel is a spam to me and my friends!
I thought Rebtel was great at first, until one of my friends in Vienna, Austria received his highest phone bill ever, 95 Euro, for â??calls to New Zealand.â?? (I live in New Zealand.)
He has never called New Zealand directly. He used Rebtel number I sent him. It looks like a Vienna local number, 01 253 892 101. The calls were supposed to be free according to his calling plan. Instead he was charged 95 Euro for those â??local callsâ?? at international rate.
How could a Vienna number show up as a New Zealand number on his phone bill? I have searched on Internet and found out I am not the only victom! Now the question is how to stop Rebtel so that it will not keep ripping off inocent people! (Please correct me, and tell me I am wrong.)
I thought Rebtel was great at first, until one of my friends in Vienna, Austria received his highest phone bill ever, 95 Euro, for â??calls to New Zealand.â?? (I live in New Zealand.)
He has never called New Zealand directly. He used Rebtel number I sent him. It looks like a Vienna local number, 01 253 892 101. The calls were supposed to be free according to his calling plan. Instead he was charged 95 Euro for those â??local callsâ?? at international rate.
How could a Vienna number show up as a New Zealand number on his phone bill? I have searched on Internet and found out I am not the only victom! Now the question is how to stop Rebtel so that it will not keep ripping off inocent people! (Please correct me, and tell me I am wrong.)
Monday 29 October 2007
Jaxtr - the dirty details
With all the "free calls" sites and services out there it can be very confusing. A lot of people are looking for free calls to India. Most services don't include places with higher costs such as India, in their "free calls" supported countries. Jaxtr is (or at least was) an exception. Except now people are starting to report problems:
** You cannot call to the same number second time.
** US Local number what they provide never function.
** Sudden disconnect the calls while talking.
** only US people have 100 Minutes, all other country they allow only 3 - 16 minutes per month as rollover.
** You cannot call to the same number second time.
** US Local number what they provide never function.
** Sudden disconnect the calls while talking.
** only US people have 100 Minutes, all other country they allow only 3 - 16 minutes per month as rollover.
Tuesday 4 September 2007
VOIPStunt not dialling
I'm using VOIPStunt, however, for the last 3 months or so, I can connect to the SIP service (get the internet call logo), and it dials without any error messages. However, I basically can't hear anything at all. The phone will quite happily stay like that infinitely, but I know that the other person's phone doesn't even ring. Any ideas?
Jaxtr math doesn't add up
Jaxtr also seems to be another of these companies where the math just doesn't work and one has to wonder on what basis they raised money and (supposedly) have received acquisition offers.
According to Tech Untangled, they are signing up 16,000 accounts per day. That is pretty impressive, for sure (if true - and nobody is saying how much they're spending in marketing to get those subs).
But looking closer, they say that 80% of their customers are in "220 countries outside the US." According to Michael Cerda, a majority of usage comes from "India, China, and Sri Lanka (the CEO himself said about 75% of their users are in these areas)" -- we know these geographies do not tend to hold high revenue potential:
Jaxtr plans to make money by charging people who use more than their allotted 100 minutes per month. An interesting choice, given that there aren't many businesses with lower margins than calling minutes.
Their stated goal is to reach 20 million subscribers in 12 months and to get 1% of these to pay for additional minutes.
That math doesn't add up. Jaxtr gives out local numbers to the caller (not one number for the callee). These have real costs, whether they are used or not. Jaxtr gives away the first 100 minutes (and extra minutes for signing up new customers). Given that about 75% of users are making calls from mobile phones, these 100 minutes also have significant costs (mobile calls outside the US cost typically 10x - 20x the cost of landline calls).
I don't even see how the supposed 1% of paying customers will result in gross margin, or, in other words, how such a customer offsets the costs of that one customer. To say nothing of how they will offset the costs of the other 99%! And all this is BEFORE any marketing costs, G&A, salaries, etc.
My math says that those 16,000 new accounts represent, conservatively, at least $10K in new monthly costs added per day (I would not be surprised if it were really $100K); and that means their monthly costs increase by roughly $300K each month, which means they burn through the $10 million they just raised in less than 12 months, before they hit their goal. Even if they reach their goal, if they get 1% to pay $2 per month (average), they will have revenues of $400K per month -- but their costs will be something like $20 million per month! Of course, this doesn't factor in advertising revenue, but I don't think that changes things enough to make Jaxtr work (especially given that these are just direct operating costs, not including salaries, marketing etc.)
Although, I suppose in this game of "sell it while it's hot", the whole idea of profits is not part of the equation. Skype didn't need any for their multi-billion dollar sale to Ebay (and may still not have any profits, given how Ebay doesn't say). Grandcentral didn't even have revenues. The list goes on.
According to Tech Untangled, they are signing up 16,000 accounts per day. That is pretty impressive, for sure (if true - and nobody is saying how much they're spending in marketing to get those subs).
But looking closer, they say that 80% of their customers are in "220 countries outside the US." According to Michael Cerda, a majority of usage comes from "India, China, and Sri Lanka (the CEO himself said about 75% of their users are in these areas)" -- we know these geographies do not tend to hold high revenue potential:
Customers there are loyal only to your offer of "free" or "cheap" - when something cheaper comes along, those customers are gone.
Jaxtr plans to make money by charging people who use more than their allotted 100 minutes per month. An interesting choice, given that there aren't many businesses with lower margins than calling minutes.
Their stated goal is to reach 20 million subscribers in 12 months and to get 1% of these to pay for additional minutes.
That math doesn't add up. Jaxtr gives out local numbers to the caller (not one number for the callee). These have real costs, whether they are used or not. Jaxtr gives away the first 100 minutes (and extra minutes for signing up new customers). Given that about 75% of users are making calls from mobile phones, these 100 minutes also have significant costs (mobile calls outside the US cost typically 10x - 20x the cost of landline calls).
I don't even see how the supposed 1% of paying customers will result in gross margin, or, in other words, how such a customer offsets the costs of that one customer. To say nothing of how they will offset the costs of the other 99%! And all this is BEFORE any marketing costs, G&A, salaries, etc.
My math says that those 16,000 new accounts represent, conservatively, at least $10K in new monthly costs added per day (I would not be surprised if it were really $100K); and that means their monthly costs increase by roughly $300K each month, which means they burn through the $10 million they just raised in less than 12 months, before they hit their goal. Even if they reach their goal, if they get 1% to pay $2 per month (average), they will have revenues of $400K per month -- but their costs will be something like $20 million per month! Of course, this doesn't factor in advertising revenue, but I don't think that changes things enough to make Jaxtr work (especially given that these are just direct operating costs, not including salaries, marketing etc.)
Although, I suppose in this game of "sell it while it's hot", the whole idea of profits is not part of the equation. Skype didn't need any for their multi-billion dollar sale to Ebay (and may still not have any profits, given how Ebay doesn't say). Grandcentral didn't even have revenues. The list goes on.
Friday 31 August 2007
Emergency PhoneGnome Service Migration
Notice to PhoneGnome customers
Today, at 3PM PDT, we received a notice from one of our data center
providers that they will be ceasing all operations on August 31 - 2
days from now. A significant portion of PhoneGnome operations are
hosted by this provider and it is unlikely that we can rehost these
services in only two days.
As a result, some PhoneGnome customers will experience service
interruptions; we request that you remain patient as we work to
restore PhoneGnome services. We will do our very best to minimize
service interruptions, but we request that you refrain from calling
or sending email as that may distract from our service recovery
efforts.
Today, at 3PM PDT, we received a notice from one of our data center
providers that they will be ceasing all operations on August 31 - 2
days from now. A significant portion of PhoneGnome operations are
hosted by this provider and it is unlikely that we can rehost these
services in only two days.
As a result, some PhoneGnome customers will experience service
interruptions; we request that you remain patient as we work to
restore PhoneGnome services. We will do our very best to minimize
service interruptions, but we request that you refrain from calling
or sending email as that may distract from our service recovery
efforts.
Thursday 23 August 2007
GrandCentral could not port over numbers
This has got to be painful for a service that promises you one number for life. GrandCentral, one of the latest Google acquisitions, that offers you one number for life that rings on all your phones has been forced to change some of their customers’ phone numbers. Due to problems with one of their upstream providers, GrandCentral could not port over some 400 numbers to another carrier and was forced to assign these customers a new phone number.
Even though GrandCentral immediately informed the affected users and assigned them a new number this will affect the credibility of the service. Users were only given notice 10 days in advance and will no longer be able to use their new number as of 31 August.
“Having to change my number would be very disruptive and a huge hassle. The possibility of this happening has become my biggest hesitation with fully embracing and using my GrandCentral number,” said Ben Spinks, practice manager at Tipp City Veterinary Hospital in Ohio. “I have gone so far as to include it in my business e-mail signatures, but I am still nervous about getting my business cards reprinted.”
Even though GrandCentral immediately informed the affected users and assigned them a new number this will affect the credibility of the service. Users were only given notice 10 days in advance and will no longer be able to use their new number as of 31 August.
“Having to change my number would be very disruptive and a huge hassle. The possibility of this happening has become my biggest hesitation with fully embracing and using my GrandCentral number,” said Ben Spinks, practice manager at Tipp City Veterinary Hospital in Ohio. “I have gone so far as to include it in my business e-mail signatures, but I am still nervous about getting my business cards reprinted.”
Friday 17 August 2007
Yoomba spams your contact lists
Aggressive Yoomba - Early users of consolidation service complain Yoomba spams their contact lists with invitations to join up.
Some early users of Yoomba's new e-mail calling and chat service are complaining that the service spams their e-mail contact lists.
Launched on Thursday, Yoomba is a free, peer-to-peer VoIP client that lets any e-mail address owner place a VoIP call or begin an instant-messaging session with any other e-mail address, whether or not the recipient is also a Yoomba user. The service adds a button to e-mail interfaces allowing users to call or chat with anyone on their e-mail contact list.
But some users are complaining about how the service sends out e-mail messages to all of their contacts inviting them to use the service.
"It spammed my entire contact list... I call that a 'virus,'" said one reader in an e-mail, who asked not to be named.
Another user had a similar experience. At the prompt that read "Here are your closest friends on Yoomba, let them know you are on," the user hit the "next" button.
"Of course those were not in fact my closest friends 'on' Yoomba, but rather my entire contact list, which it proceeded to spam," said the user in an anonymous posting to the Network World Web site. "How embarrassing. Needless to say, I uninstalled."
"These guys put in this cute little feature where after install, it brings up a screen to add contacts. If you don't read carefully (or maybe even if you do ... I can't seem to get back to the screen) it spams all of your freaking contacts!!!," said the user in a posting. "Looks to me like it's just another IM/VOIP client, but with an auto add-all-your-contacts-and-spam-them 'feature'."
Some early users of Yoomba's new e-mail calling and chat service are complaining that the service spams their e-mail contact lists.
Launched on Thursday, Yoomba is a free, peer-to-peer VoIP client that lets any e-mail address owner place a VoIP call or begin an instant-messaging session with any other e-mail address, whether or not the recipient is also a Yoomba user. The service adds a button to e-mail interfaces allowing users to call or chat with anyone on their e-mail contact list.
But some users are complaining about how the service sends out e-mail messages to all of their contacts inviting them to use the service.
"It spammed my entire contact list... I call that a 'virus,'" said one reader in an e-mail, who asked not to be named.
Another user had a similar experience. At the prompt that read "Here are your closest friends on Yoomba, let them know you are on," the user hit the "next" button.
"Of course those were not in fact my closest friends 'on' Yoomba, but rather my entire contact list, which it proceeded to spam," said the user in an anonymous posting to the Network World Web site. "How embarrassing. Needless to say, I uninstalled."
"These guys put in this cute little feature where after install, it brings up a screen to add contacts. If you don't read carefully (or maybe even if you do ... I can't seem to get back to the screen) it spams all of your freaking contacts!!!," said the user in a posting. "Looks to me like it's just another IM/VOIP client, but with an auto add-all-your-contacts-and-spam-them 'feature'."
Thursday 16 August 2007
Skype Suffers Major Outage
Skype has suffered a major service outage that started from approximately 3am PST Thursday.
Skype advised that their engineering team had determined that the downtime was due to a software issue, with the problem expected to be solved “within 12 to 24 hours.”
The issue was serious enough to cause Skype to temporarily disable all downloads of the Skype client.
Skpe has had a very strong record of uptime previously and this outage is a first in recent memory. In comparison Twitter was down intermittently from 7pm PST Wednesday for around 6 hours, a fairy regular occurrence. Skype remained down at the time of writing as at 7:30am PST.
Friday 3 August 2007
Shame On You Rebtel
If they call anybody from their Rebtel address book they are diverted to strangers. If they then go to the Rebtel website to register a new "friend" to call - it is 100 % certain they will not call this friend but a complete stranger.
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