Jaxtr

Does Jaxtr have a free calling death wish?

Doug Mohney — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:23:27 -0500

Me-too VoIP/Voice 2.0/mobile VoIP/kitchen-sink startups have been either dying or trying to differentiate themselves from the pack for the past year. Jaxtr seems to want to squander the $10 million VC round it received in June by offering free calling - a trick pony already tried and died by other VoIP companies.

The FreeConnect service hands out local PSTN dialing numbers to Jaxtr members to dial directly, with local phone numbers also able to be used again - and also resulting in costs for using the PSTN and phone numbers. Rebtel, AOL, and a wave of others have tried the whole free phone number scheme with little success, so even if Jaxtr got a really great deal on blocks of phone numbers around the country, they still have to pay the overhead costs.

Jaxtr's CEO believes that a good chunk of free callers will convert to paid callers, so the company will be able to cover costs of the free callers will be covered by the paid guys. Uhhhhh....

For more:
- Om Malik reports on this suicidal VoIP business strategy.

Jaxtr lays off employees

Doug Mohney — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:41:42 -0400

VoIP service/social network Jaxtr laid off 13 employees Friday, belt-tightening it claims will let it stay in business for at least another 18 months.

After the personnel cuts, Jaxtr has 30 full time employees. Jaxtr was founded in 2005 and launched in 2007 with a widget to enable users to receive calls from their friends through a VoIP connection while keeping their personal phone numbers private. It later added low-cost long distance and international calling to the mix.

Only a few weeks ago, Jaxtr added "premium memberships" - subscriptions -- to get a more consistent cash flow model than its previous model of a la carte purchases of phone call credits. There's also some ad revenue coming in.

Executive management at Jaxtr says it hasn't spent any of the $10 million VC money it raised in June and the company expects the cash, along with revenue streams and growth, to allow it to keep going for at least 18 months.

Jaxtr's real problem may be lacking enough differentiation from TalkPlus, Jangl, Raketu and other "me too" VoIP plays that leaned heavily on cheap phone calls and free clients, without implementing many unique features.

For more:
- TechCrunch dials in Jaxtr layoff. Post.

Jaxtr Dials Out and into $10M

Doug Mohney — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:33:30 -0400

Jaxtr, yet another VoIP-to-mobile-phone play, has now enabled out of network calls with the usual discounted savings--"substantially less"--than rates charged by a typical calling card. The company also scored $10 million in VC money.

Jaxtr users were always able to make free in-network calls, it was the off-network piece that wasn't announced until yesterday. Calls are placed with direct dial numbers, avoiding the headache of access and PIN numbers. Jaxtr is currently used by more than 10 million people in 220 countries, says the company.

Lehman Brothers Venture Partners led the $10 million dollar of financing. A Lehman Brothers partner praised Jaxtr's ability to acquire "millions" of customers per month without spending any money on marketing and the ability to monetize its offering within 16 months of launch through advertising and premium (i.e. value-added bells and whistles) services. Premium features include more free SMS per month and enhanced digital voicemail features.

Credits, or "jax," can be spent and purchased to call non-members. One jax equals about a penny, so you can call Canada and China for around a penny per minute and India for 6 cents per minute.

Has Jaxtr found a way to survive in a crowded field populated by Jajah, TruPhone, and the corpses of other players such as Jangl, and TalkPlus?

For more
- Jaxtr $10M and out-of-network release

Related articles:
Jaxtr: 10 million customers but no revenue
Jaxtr social network VoIP tool bows: Do you care?

ALSO NOTED: P2P VoIP Outfit Ooma Struggling?; Jaxtr Raises $6.4 Million for Blog, Social Net VoIP Service

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:59:52 -0400

> P2P VoIP outfit Ooma struggling?

> Jaxtr Raises $6.4 Million for blog, social net VoIP service

Jaxtr: 10 million customers but no revenue

Tom Burton — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:59:54 -0500

Social networking VoIP player Jaxtr is claiming 10 million subscribers within a year of launch. Last week it launched its Jaxtr Cafe product, a VoIP-based application that enables users to discuss topics of common interest. The application will also carry advertising, the first attempt to try to gather some revenue from its surging user base.

Jaxtr's subscriber numbers have been fueled by free international and mobile-to-mobile calling, with suggestions in blog commentary of many multiple accounts being established to get around the free-calling limits.

Since it launched its calling widget, many other operators have also introduced chat back widgets with similar functionality. These have included Google's Talk and GrandCentral products and Jajah. Its cafe product is an attempt to exploit the booming social networking culture and to finally secure some ad revenue. Like many consumer VoIP ideas Jaxtr's free calling app has had a lot of tire kickers looking for cheap or free telephony, but has struggled to capturing sustainable revenues from its core voice business.

For more:
- Jaxtr claims 10 million subscribers Article

Related articles:
Skype struggles to find real revenue Article
Skype resists inter-operability Article