Set up by founders Daniel Mattes and Roman Scharf, Jajah is a tad different from current Net telephony products from the likes of Skype, MSN and Yahoo.
 To make phone calls, users key in their phone number and the number of the other party on Jajah's Web site. |
Users do not need to install any additional software on a PC to use Jajah's Net telephony offering. Instead, the service is initiated through the company's Web site.
Users only need to visit the Web site and key in their phone number, followed by the number they wish to dial. Jajah's servers will subsequently call both parties on their traditional telephones and make the connection. Because calls are routed through Jajah's network, users do not even require a broadband connection.
But delivering Net telephony services through a Web site was not something Jajah's founders thought of immediately, or at least, in 2005 when the company was first established. Back then, Jajah had required its users to download a software tool in order to start making calls.
Jajah spokesperson Markus Rumler, said the launch of the company's software client was "quite successful with 50,000 downloads within 48 hours". The application has since been discontinued.
"But Roman and Daniel were unhappy as it was not too easy to use," Rumler told ZDNet Asia. "They then read an IDC report stating that only 3 percent of Internet users use VoIP (voice of Internet protocol), while 95 percent use search engines. The conclusion was to make VoIP as easy as searching a keyword on Google."
Jajah users pay nothing for the first five minutes of a phone call to almost anywhere in the world. Beyond that time limit, they will have to pay for subsequent call minutes at prices comparable to those offered by Skype. Value-added services such as SMS (short messaging service) and call scheduling, where users can set a time for a call to take place, are also available for a fee.
Rumler declined to reveal how many users Jajah has signed up so far, though he said the company is targeting to attract 1 million registered users by year-end.
"We have a great conversion rate, where 95 out of 100 users who visit our Web site end up trying our service," he said, adding that almost 60 percent of registered users are paid customers.
To widen its user base, Jajah introduced a "global free calling plan" last month that allows users to make free landline and mobile calls within, and to "the most called places on Earth", Rumler said. These include Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, the United
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