Interview with Yusuf Motiwala, CEO, TringMe
Your incoming call solution is essentially click-to-call where you forward the incoming call to either a VoIP client or an IM client or a designated cell phone or land line. Now, we have had the first generation of web telephony vendors like Net2phone and eFusion (which is now eStara) enable similar features. What is different now in terms of capabilities?
Our basic intention has been to enable VoIP without the need to download anything. The click-to-call capability fits within our overall solution accordingly. Suppose you don’t have access to your laptop and you need to call from some place where you have just plain old Internet connection. With our solution you can make the calls without downloading anything. The VoIP capability is enabled by a web integrated dialer.
But we have had companies like Dialpad and couple others who offered web integrated VoIP dialers.
I don’t know much about those companies. But there have been a previous generation of companies that offered Java based clients. We do Flash based embedded clients. Flash is now ubiquitous. Our web based Flash VoIP client is merely 3k in size. It shows up instantly upon clicking.
Do you think the differentiating factor in your click-to-call approach might be the fact that you had previous click to call application targeted mostly at the businesses, and now you people have extended that offering to consumers?
That is right. There are numerous personal sites and so many profile pages on social networking sites now. That drives the demand and makes the timing right for extending click-to-call to consumers.
There is the interoperability issue as well. The IM clients have become more open now and you can forward a call or voicemail to these clients. That was not possible few years back. Right?
I would say Google is relatively open with their Gtalk. Others are actually not so open when it comes to interoperability.
Are you working on any other IM clients as well?
We are currently working on Yahoo Messenger and that capability should be available soon.
You charge money for receiving calls on landline of cell phone. We are not used to paying for receiving calls.
Among the consumers we mostly have the Gtalk and Skype type users subscribing to click-to-call. Call forwarding to landlines and mobiles will most probably be used by business community more.
How long have you been going and how many users have you signed up?
We have been going for about three months. We have signed up 32,000 users so far.
You must be pursuing funding for this idea. How far have you progressed?
We will be exploring the option of funding shortly.
Have you thought about productizing your platform?
We are already licensing our platform. We have 2 of the Fortune 100 companies licensing this technology.
The companies you are targetting as potential licensees inlcude the telecom vendors as well?
Yes.
You are a company based in India with global traction. Did you ever intend it that way or did you had just the Indian market in mind when you set this up?
No, we have always had the global audience in mind. We might also incorporate the company in the US if that makes sense in order to continue serving a global subscriber base.
