Don Thorson - Marketing 2.0

iPhones + iChat

"The iPhone will soon have iChat integration which will  link all iPhone users to each other as well as to Mac desktop users, to create a first of a kind, mobile global linked community". Well, that's my guess anyway. It's not rocket science. Here is the evidence I'm looking at:

Adobe is said to be adding VoIP capabilities to the next version of Flash, as had been reported by Om , as well as Tom Keating  It's also generally believed  that Apple will announce support of  Flash on the iPhone, as suggested by Walt Mossberg and widely reported by everyone else. This would be a nice little relationship between the companies. Apple brings added differentiation to the iPhone (as if it needs it), while reinforcing the  advantages of being a computer company first and a phone provider second. Adobe extends the usefulness of Flash while reinforcing it's platform characteristics.

So who cares?

End Users - End users are going to be able to carry on conversations over wi-fi networks to any other iPhone user and probably any other Mac user seamlessly and hopefully for free. (Apple could charge for the connection, but hopefully will instead see the benefit of increasing the size of their user base). The solution will have built in presence across all Mac OS devices, (and conceivably all "opted in" flash players?). If you're on Mac or iPhone and you are on the network, the system will indicate your availability.  I would watch for a video camera and video iChat to be built in before Christmas,

Telcos / Carriers - Telcos will certainly be taking notice because this play hits right at a ridiculously profitable category for them and could signal the end of their walled gardened "playground". Long distance charges and roaming revenue will rapidly decay as users simply make sure they are in a wi-fi before they make international calls. When this happens, by the way, watch for  Apple to start using telco terms like "network size" and  social media terms like "community members". Apple will be disrupting an estimated 250 billion dollar slice of the 2.5 trillion annual communication  pie.  The telcos will need to be very concerned that they don't find themselves in the position of the music industry,  trying to  negotiate with Steve Jobs on how much they can charge their customers.

Skype - Skype, and all the current VoIP players will care. Skype, being a 1.0 downloaded client, will be made technically obsolete as soon as the Flash voice component hits the streets. The Apple integration of Flash VoIP  will certainly run right through the iPhone microphone and speaker so there won't be any special equipment and there won't be a download, in the traditional sense - it will simply be supplied in an iPhone software upgrade.

Apple - Apple cares because for the last 10 years they've been trying to position themselves at the confluence of computers, entertainment and communication and this is the last leg of this three legged stool. Demonstrating massive innovation in the communication sector is positioning them for ten years of industry leadership. What comes out of the merger of the Internet and telephony is yet to be defined but it will be significant and landscape changing.

The Catch - There are two catches actually. The first issue will be VoIP call quality. The quality of a VoIP call is usually defined by a combination of the speed of the connection (size of the pipe) and the power of the processor translating the analog voice signal to digital. If the wi-fi connection is weak, the call quality will be unacceptable, leaving room for non-bandwidth dependent solutions like Jajah. The other catch is, it might not be free. I wouldn't be surprised to see Apple require a .mac like account to use this service, possibly adding Voice 2.o features on the back-end to justify the cost.

PSTN Gateway - I doubt we'll see this in an early rev. but you can be sure they are also working on a wi-fi to PSTN bridge of some kind, possibly not unlike T-Mobiles recently announced Hotspot at Home service that reportedly lets you walk out of the wi-fi coverage area and get picked up by the T-Mobile cell service without dropping the call.

Any way you look at it, the telephony industry as we know it, is in for a roller-coaster of change. The good news is, the end user is about to win as a result.

 

Jajah - Year One

Today marks Jajah's first birthday and it's as good a time as any to circle back around to my own neglected blog and get everyone up to speed on what Ive been doing. I joined Jajah about 10 months ago and since then, I've been spending most of my time doing the rocketship / start-up thing. Today we announced that Jajah has signed up 2 million users in the first 12 months. We're pleased!

Importantly, these users are from 55 countries, which speaks volumes about the power of marketing 2.0 techniques and also about the global dissatisfaction users everywhere have with their existing phone companies. I'd like to take my fair share of the credit for winning these customers  - but the truth is, people are just tired of handing over large checks every month to traditional phone companies and are anxious for a better, cheaper way to stay in touch with their friends and family.

The fun part, from a marketing perspective, is that we've been able to reach these 2 million customers using low-cost social media and public relations. We are now sometimes being compared to traditional phone companies who regularly spend hundreds of dollars on customer acquisition ( Vonage , for example, spends over 300.00 to acquire a new customer) . While we spend something in the neighborhood of 2.00 dollars.

While we treat telephony as a web business, our competitors often use 1.0  marketing techniques. One of the reasons your phone bill is so high is because they are getting you to pay for the TV advertising which tries to win you as a customer - kinda crazy. We would rather use low cost out-reach and viral techniques and then pass the savings to our users. Apparently we are onto something.

The Jajah Year

It's been amazing actually. Unlike many start-ups, you could say Jajah suffers from too much news. Our problem is managing it's global distribution - this is because of the state of the art engineering team that innovates faster than any company I've ever worked with.

Check out the Jajah 12 month milestones:

• October - December 2005 - Sequoia and Globespan invests in JAJAH
• February 2006 - ICQ Founder, Yair Goldfinger joins board
• March 27, 2006 - Global launch
• May 2006 – JAJAH named to “Red Herring 100”
• May 2006 – JAJAH offers scheduled call service
• September 2006 - JAJAH offers conference calling with up to 10 callers
• September 2006 - JAJAH Mobile announced at Fall DEMO and ETRE
• October 2006 - Firefox Integration
• November 2006 - Google Gadget
• December 2006 – Free calls on Christmas - global calling promotion
• December 2006 - Media Integration - T-online, ProSiebenSat1
• January 2007 – JAJAH reaches 1.2 million registered users
• January 2007 - Apple Widget
• February 2007 – JAJAH Mobile Web (for smartphones) is available (my favorite Jajah solution)
• February 2007 - Dynamic Buttons Beta (customized click-to-call options)
• March 2007 – JAJAH named to “Pulver 100”
• March 2007 – Joyent, Gumiyo, call center integration
• March 2007 - Free 411/free Yellow pages
• March 27, 2007 - JAJAH turns one and serves 2 million users

If you want to know how these stories evolved, check out the Jajah Blog, most of these events are chronicled there and it makes an interesting progression of events - from there you can also check out the youtube and flickr presence. And stay tuned, the second year promises to be even bigger than the first and as we like to say around jajah:
" Keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times".

Fun With Numbers

Today Alec Saunders  points us to Kevin Coughlin , where Kevin talks about the "cost of distraction". Listen to these numbers:

- 22.3 Trillion - the number of emails to be sent this year.

- 3 billion  - the number of instant messages to be relayed by AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft.

- 81.2 Million- the number of text messages to be sent to US cell phones.

Other numbers, along the same lines:

- 2.5 Billion - the number of mobile phone subscribers.

- 850 Million - the number of  mobile handsets sold/year

- $ 2.87 Trillion - Worldwide telecom revenue

Kevin's reports that Basex, a consulting firm, has quantified the cost of these "distractions".  Evidently it costs us $588 billion to be interrupted that much. Hummmm. I guess I don't get it. Yes, I get junk mail and yes, down time is pleasurable and wonderful and critical - but staying in immediate contact with friends, family and colleagues is the thread that brings context to it all. We are a social animal. (Someone once told me that the only reason we invented work was so we'd have an excuse to get together).  We are tribal by nature. We run in packs. To me, these numbers are a reflection of the coming together of a global pack, a large unified earth-sized tribe.

And now that I'm working globally- staying in contact with the greater team is so immediate and fluid - we couldn't do it without the virtual mind-meld. Distractions? I know what you mean, but it's not resonating with me now. I'm loving this stuff.

What Is Jajah?

There are two ways to talk about Jajah, Jajah today and Jajah tomorrow. Both versions are off the charts, in terms of their "cool factor".

Jajah today: Jajah is a simple, elegant 2.o app that lets you make "regular" phone calls, anywhere  on the planet - either for free or for very, little money, depending on where you are calling. What you do: you go to our website, enter your own phone number, enter the phone number of who you want to call, then press the "call" button.

After you hit "call" , your phone will ring, your friends phone will ring - you both answer and you talk. You've basically instructed our server to make two local calls - which is one of the reasons it's so cheap.

For you Skype Types out there - With Jajah, there is NO download, NO Software, NO Headsets, NO Hassle. With Jajah you are making a regular call, just dialing it from our 2.0 app.

To get up to speed fast about Jajah, check us out on YouTube (Newscasts and "How To's"). Very informative.

Jajah Tomorrow:  We are still playing around with the language, "Voice 2.0", "Hybrid Telephony" ? Here is what we know. The way you think about voice communication is about to dramatically change. Sounds crazy, but it's not. The telephone industry has a lot of good things to offer (phones work) but it's staged for big time disruption. Not unlike the music industry, it is very resistant to changing its behaviors - leaving it completely exposed to innovative start-ups (like us) who will bring high value , and very cool solutions to everyday consumers - at a fraction of the price, and in a fraction of the time.

Embedded Telephony - Today , most of us think in terms of  "pick up the phone, dial, talk". But Jajah sees a world where calls are not device or telephone centric. Already today, Jajah lets you make a regular phone call directly from within applications, like Outlook and Firefox - just click the number on the  browser page or in the address book, and Jajah connects your call. Often for free. No Kidding. This stuff actually works.

"OOOPS! I Did It Again".

Ooops. I did it again - took a real job, that is. This time it's Jajah - one of the coolest companies on the planet. As a result, I haven't found the time to blog since, wow, April 29th. Here's the short version:

I send Guy Kawasaki a note, telling him what I've learned about global branding via social networking. He sends me a note about Jajah - a company he's blogged about. I'm looking for a company that needs to go global fast and Jajah's looking for someone with a passion to do it.

A few interviews on Sand Hill Road with the founders and investors and I'm signed up as the VP of Global Marketing and on a plane to Vienna,  Austria (where Jajah was founded) to get to down to work.

Week One:  Go to work. Meet key players.
Week Two: Off To Europe and Israel (the engineering team is in Tel Aviv)
Week Three: Plan a Big Announcement (PR / Blogosphere)
Week Four: Announce "Free Global Calling" - U.S.
Week Five:  (4th of July) Announce Free Global Calling - Europe.
Week Six:  Begin to work on Infrastructure / Team / Planning.

Any one of those weeks above is a complete, lengthy blog entry. I'll try to get back to speed in following weeks.