Yahoo! has offered free computer-to-computer voice chatting for many years, through its instant messaging and chat services. Recent versions of Yahoo! Messenger have upgraded what used to be a walkie-talkie communication style to full duplex ability, encouraging a more normal conversation style. Now, Yahoo! reportedly is set to introduce computer-to-phone calling to its IM users at a penny per minute. Details are sketchy, but tying the service to IM implies that Yahoo! will not be directly challenging Vonage, which supplies a router so its customers can make calls on standard phones. This thing will not be a pure VoIP play, but it'll be a lot purer than anything Yahoo! has tried before. The real competitive challenge is to Skype, which eBay recently acquired for 2.6-billion dollars. For the record, if Skype matched Yahoo!'s anticipated penny-per-minute pricing, it would have to service 2,600,000,000,000 minutes of calling time to earn back the investment. That's 2.6-trillion minutes.
Yahoo! Plans VoIP Service
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. The real question here is what added values Yahoo can offer to their regular IM services - to a VoIP experience, which is a significant upgrade in service and a leap forward. On top of that they will strengthen their value proposition by allowing their users to personalize the VoIP experience with avatars and ringtones for free. In doing so, the user’s emotional bond can be translated into customer loyalty and revenues.
Posted at 5:45AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Xen Dolev
3. The real question here is what added values Yahoo can offer to their regular IM services - to a VoIP experience, which is a significant upgrade in service and a leap forward. On top of that they will strengthen their value proposition by allowing their users to personalize the VoIP experience with avatars and ringtones for free. In doing so, the user’s emotional bond can be translated into customer loyalty and revenues.
Posted at 5:45AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Xen Dolev
4. Yeah I think that is the real question. Don't think yahoo will offer anything substantially more than that what vonage or others will be offering.
Posted at 5:45AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Make money fast monsters
1. The real question is will it support SIP for corporate use with VoIP PBX equipment from the free Asterisk software to 3Com's NBX system.
Posted at 5:45AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Ernie Oporto