Jaxtr

Jaxtr is a social communications company that melds together global calling, SMS, and social networking. Founded by Phillip Mobin and Touraj Parang in 2005 [“Jaxtr - Free MySpace Phone Calls,” Mashable. 14 December 2006. http://mashable.com/2006/12/14/jaxtr-free-myspace-phone-calls/comment-page-2/] , jaxtr uses Voice over Internet Protocol to offer competitive rates for international calling. Some key differentiators for jaxtr in its market include allowing calls to and from mobile and landline phones, offering social networking focused on voice (café jaxtr), requiring no software downloads or access pins, and giving users Direct Inward Dialing (DID) phone numbers. Offered in 56 countries, these numbers allow users in those countries to dial a local phone number and connect with a phone internationally. Jaxtr also offers users a set number of international SMS messages each month.

Jaxtr reports having over 10 million users in 220 countries in 2008. In June of 2008, they raised $10 million in a Series B round of venture capital funding from Lehman Brothers Venture Partners. In the same month, they also launched their paid services [“Jaxtr Raises 10 million to expand Cheap International Calls,” VentureBeat. 23 June 2008. http://venturebeat.com/2008/06/23/jaxtr-raises-10-million-to-expand-cheap-international-calls/] . Currently, the company is located in Menlo Park, CA.

History

* October 2005 jaxtr is founded by Touraj Parang and Phillip Mobin and opens its first office in Palo Alto, CA

* December 2006, jaxtr founders hire Konstantin Guericke as jaxtr CEO away from LinkedIn where he was serving as co-founder and VP Marketing [“LinkedIn co-founder quits, joins Jaxtr,” GigaOm. 14 December 2006. http://gigaom.com/2006/12/14/linkedin-co-founder-quits-joins-jaxtr/]

* December 2006, Private Beta launched [”Jaxtr Widget Lets Social Networkers Chat On Real Live Phones.” TechCrunch. 14 December 2006. http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/14/jaxtr-widget-lets-social-networkers-chat-on-real-live-phones/]

* March 2007, jaxtr launches Public Beta with VoiceBlastsTM and announces seed funding led by Mayfield Fund’s Chamath Palihapitiva and David Ladd [”Jaxtr Out Of Private Beta: Link Your Phone To Your Web Page.” TechCrunch. 20 March 2007. http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/20/jaxtr-out-of-private-beta-link-your-phone-to-your-web-page/]

* March 2007, jaxtr headquarters move to Menlo Park, CA

* May 2007, jaxtr is named to the Red Herring 100--an award recognizing the 100 "Most Promising Companies Driving the Future of Change" [”Red Herring 100 Finalists,” RedHerring.com. http://www.herringevents.com/spring07/200finalists.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-05]

* May 2007, jaxtr user base reaches 100,000 registered users [“Jaxtr reaches 100,000 Users,” Mashable. 25 May 2007. http://mashable.com/2007/05/25/jaxtr-2/]

* July 2007, jaxtr is selected by AlwaysOn as an AO100 Top Private Company Award Winner [”The 2007 AO 100 Top Companies,” AlwaysOn. http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:T7iEvdFbKosJ:artimi.com/uploads/presentations/AlwaysOn%25202007%2520AO%2520100%2520Top%2520Companies.pdf%3FPHPSESSID%3De145b5ce0a64791c3c20c18461fb6b12+always+on+AO+100+Top+Private+Company+jaxtr&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&client=firefox-a. Retrieved on 2008-09-05] Failed verification|date=September 2008Dead link|date=September 2008

* July 2007, jaxtr user base reaches 500,000, doubled from 250,000 in 27 days [“Jaxtr overseas call service double users in month,” Reuters. 23 July 2007. http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKN2041687520070723]

* September 2007, jaxtr raises a $10 Million Series A financing, led by August Capital [”Skype Investors Now Turn to Jaxtr,” New York Times. 29 August 2007. http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/skype-investors-now-turn-to-jaxtr/]

* December 2007, jaxtr grows 10-fold to 5 million registered members in 140 days [”Jaxtr free call service jumps tenfold to 5 million,” Reuters. 11 December 2007. http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN1065357920071211]

* February 2008, jaxtr goes out of Beta and launches café jaxtr, the world’s first Talk Network^TM [”If You Want To Talk Technology With A German, Try Jaxtr Café,” TechCrunch. 25 February 2008. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/25/if-you-want-to-talk-technology-with-a-german-try-jaxtr-cafe/]

* April 2008, jaxtr launches free international SMS and grows to more than 10,000,000 users [”Jaxtr offers free texting between 38 countries,” Reuters. 16 April 2008. http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN1517085720080416]

* May 2008, jaxtr extends its network to support 220 countries with the jaxtr service and 56 countries with local phone numbers [“Jaxtr Broadens its Coverage in the Asian Market,” Web 2.0 Asia, 29 May 2008. http://www.web20asia.com/283]

* June 2008, jaxtr opens up its service by launching out-of-network calling

* June 2008, jaxtr raises $10 Million in a Series B round of funding, led by Lehman Brothers Venture Partners [”Jaxtr Finally Enables Out-Of-Network Calling, Raises $10 Million,” TechCrunch, 23 June 2008. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/23/jaxtr-finally-enables-out-of-network-calling-raises-10-million/]

* July 2008, jaxtr wins an AlwaysOn Global Top 250 Award ["AO Global 250 Winners." AlwaysOn. July 17, 2008. http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/27959.]

* September 2008, jaxtr launches version 2.0, featuring Premium Memberships. ["Jaxtr Eyes Profitability with New Premium Memberships for Web-Based VoIP Calls." Mashable, 29 Sep 2008. http://mashable.com/2008/09/29/jaxtr-eyes-profitability-with-new-premium-memberships-for-web-based-voip-calls/]

Technology

While Skype popularized the concept to make calls through personal computers for consumers, jaxtr builds on that concept by allowing calls to be routed through VoIP to and from both mobile and landline phones. As a hybrid of telephony and Web technologies, jaxtr has a scalable platform of distributed Java components and MySQL database servers, which run a protocol-independent calls engine that combines users' voice and text conversations. Jaxtr uses open source software throughout the system--memcached, Asterisk, and OpenSER SIP server among others.

Jaxtr provides local phone numbers in numerous countries around the world by contracting with wholesale Direct Inward Dialing (DID) exchanges such as DIDX (DIDXchange). Providing users with these DIDs allows them to dial a local number, which is routed through jaxtr’s VoIP system, and connects with the person they are calling internationally. As a result, the caller pays their service provider only the standard charge for local calling, instead of international toll charges.

Competitors

Skype pioneered the consumer VoIP application, when it launched its public Beta on August 29th, 2003, giving anyone with Internet connectivity access to free, unlimited, high-quality voice communication over the Internet [Skype Beta Launched http://about.skype.com/2003/08/skype_beta_launched.html. Skype.com. Retrieved on 2008-09-04] . Another company in the consumer VoIP space is Rebtel whose service allows users to add contacts with international phone numbers and get local landline numbers back (DIDs) [Rebtel: How to Make a Direct Call http://www.rebtel.com/en/How-it-works/How-to-make-a-direct-call/. Rebtel.com. Retrieved on 2008-09-04] . Jajah also offers a variety of VoIP services using mobile and landline phones [Jajah: Products http://jajah.com/products/. Jajah.com. Retrieved on 2008-09-04] . Ooma offers a different consumer VoIP solution, unlike jaxtr, Jajah, and Rebtel, it requires the one time purchase of a piece of hardware, which allows users to enjoy unlimited calling within the U.S. and low-cost international rates [Ooma: Learn, http://www.ooma.com/learn/. Ooma.com. Retrieved on 2008-09-04] .

See also

Voice over IP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VoIP)

Direct Inward Dialing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Inward_Dialing)

External links

Jaxtr (http://www.jaxtr.com)

Jaxtr in the Works Blog (http://jaxtr.blogspot.com)

References