WATBlog spoke to Vikas Saxena, India Head, Nimbuzz on Skype, Voip and 3G in India.. Here is the interview:
1. Tell us something about Nimbuzz
- As I said Nimbuzz is a Rotterdam based company, and we are backed by some of the most successful VCs in the business like Naspers Group and Mangrove Capital Partners. Nimbuzz predominantly is a multi-community mobile social messenger combining instant messaging, (geo) presence, and VoIP across popular communities. The free application is available on the mobile, web and PC, for instant messaging, location sharing, (group) calling, file sharing, and chat rooms. We are award winning and leading the way in aggregate messaging, where Nimbuzz brings the power of mobility in this world of social networks. So under one client you will have all your social life, so you have your Orkut Friends, Facebook Friends, Gtalk Friends, and etc. all available from one contact list. It’s an always on communication medium – may it be chatting or voice calling and so on, an attractive fact for our handset and operator partners. That’s what Nimbuzz is.
- We are a global company with a user base from almost every country on the globe. In addition to our Rotterdam headquarters we have offices in Argentina, Brazil, and India too.
2. Could you please let us know the user stats, India stats too?
- Right now we are doing around 30,000 registrations every day globally .India is one our top geographies and it has been growing in leaps and bounds over the last one year.
3. What is your business model?
- Nimbuzz is well-capitalized from smart money investors but we also have revenue sharing operator and handset manufacturer partnership deals starting this year with Toshiba, RIM, Spice Mobiles, and Tata Indicom where Nimbuzz is pre-installed on their devices
- Using the Nimbuzz platform, operators can deliver comunity to their userbase, meaning, we can tie all their customers together without any overhead or time investments from the operator. Because Nimbuzz needs a data connection to work, everything happens over the operator pipeline – calls, IM, messages, file sharing etc- which untimately encourages the use and therefore sale of data
- Mobile advertising is another revenue stream given our growth, distribution strategy, and the size of our user base but which won’t be the key revenue driver. We are experimenting with the best solution focused around opt-in for the user and brand engagement for the advertiser.
- In addition, as we introduce more services we may decide to supplement our offering with premium services for those users who would like to pay, alongside our core offering that will always remain free
4. What differentiates Nimbuzz from other services?
- Nimbuzz provides you much wider array of services vis-à-vis any of our competitors. We are constantly innovating, for example our iPhone client is the most comprehensive available and the first to introduce landscape chat, plus integration of local social networks alongside global communities. Our VoIP options are extensive – Internet/VoIP calling for 2.5, 3G, and Wi-Fi networks, Dial-Up VoIP (local dial-in number connects to VoIP server) in 50+ countries where only GPRS/EDGE networks are available and SIP calling for cheap (international) mobile and landline calls via any of our partners such as Gizmo5, Vyke, sipgate and more.
- Voice Quality etc. is unmatched. The industry recognizes our achievements and we were recently voted TechCrunch Best Mobile Startup and won the Red Herring Global 100 award. The only Aggregated IM who has won that award.
5. Skype and Google are releasing their own mobile apps, especially Skype is concentrating on its device presence, how is that affecting your business?
- Right now Mobile VOIP is in such infancy that, Skype coming in will grow the pie for everybody. Nimbuzz is in a position to establish the market and our global success shows that the aggregated, All-in-One Nimbuzz approach is more favorable for today’s generation. Our mantra, mobile freedom, reflects this approach and is seen in every product we offer. So Skype coming in is a good as it will promote the market to the consumer but Nimbuzz offer far more than just VoIP calling and IM. So it’s good news!
6. What do you think about VoIP in India? You don’t have a local voice access point.
- VoIP is a much regulated industry and we believe that it will open up in some time to come, maybe next year. But there are certain pieces which are legally allowed and Nimbuzz will focus on those areas. For e.g. people living outside India calling their relatives in India, this is something that’s really interesting.
7. How is 3G going to impact mobile app adoption in India?
- Nothing could be better for us, being a company in mobile internet domain. Better visibility or message going across to people that there is something that you could do on mobile phones as well, so if you might see operator’s advertisements like Mahendra Singh Dhoni talking in Aircel Advertisement talking about something you could do with mobile internet rather than selling online cheap voice calls. So with 3G coming in, these kinds of advertisements will go out in the market soon, which will educate the mass market which will in turn make them aware of applications like Nimbuzz
8. Mobile computational capabilities are increasing by the day. Mobile apps or Mobile browser, What is the future of Mobile internet?
- From my perspective, I would say that future would not be like online mobile application, or only browsing through mobile. Just as it happened on PC, it will be a mix of both. On PC its more browsing than downloadable software , while on mobile it would be the other way round because you need to have well optimized solution for a particular handset so maybe mobile application would dominate more, but of course there will be a always be associated with just browsing on mobile phones. So it will be a mix of both and both with thrive.
Its true “Nimbuzz is at the vanguard of a change in the way that phone systems are used in sales and marketing”. Now phone will help you making your choices for life. This is great to know. Nimbuzz has now leading edge over Truphone, Jajah and Vopium .
Great mobile application. I Like it and using it last 3 years and waiting for video chat via Nimbuzz.
Thanks Nimbuzz
hi vijay,
can u provide me in detail in nimbuzz and can u arrange executive for clear all point face to face in meeting at mumbai our belapur office and if possible please inform me on cell 09881136354
hello,ihave an id on nimbuzz which i made though using my mob unfortunately i didnt remembered the password and when i asked by email and using my mob no. which is 9887878253 could get any reply please suggest to me a way to how to find my profile to using net or mob my user name is —saharemilind
Impressive piece of information, let me elaborate more on VoIP. Voice over Internet Protocol has been around since many years. But due to lack of sufficient and affordable bandwidth it was not possible to carry carrier grade voice over Internet Protocol. But since the arrival of low cost internet bandwidth and new speech codecs such as G.729, G.723 which utilizes very low payload to carry carrier class voice it has recently been possible to leverage the true benefits of VoIP. G.723 codec utilizes only 6 Kbps (Kilo Bytes/sec) which is capable of maintaining a constant stream of data between peers and deliver carrier grade voice quality. Lets put this way if you have 8 Mbps internet connection, by using G.723 codec you can run upto 100 telephone lines with crystal clear and carrier grade voice quality. I am also a user of VoIP and have setup a small PBX at home. Since I have discovered VoIP I have never used traditional PSTN service.
Dear readers, if you have not yet tried VoIP I suggest that you try VoIP technology and I bet you will never want to use the traditional PSTN phone service ever again. VoIP has far more superior features to offer which traditional PSTN sadly cannot offer.
Also It has recently been possile to carry Video alongwith VoIP by using low payload video codecs. I cannot resist to tell you that by using T.38 passthrough and disabling VAD VoIP can carry FAX transmission, but beaware FAX T.38 passthrough will only work when using wide band protocols such as G.711, a-Law and u-Law.
By using ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter) which converts VoIP signals into traditional PSTN you can also using Dial-up modems to connect to various dialup services. I wont go in to the details what VoIP can offer, to cut my story short VoIP is a must to have product for every business and individual.
How VoIP Works
When we make a VoIP call, a communication channel is established between caller and called party over IP (Internet Protocol) which runs on top of computer data networks. A telephony conversation that takes place over VoIP are converted into binary data packets streams in real time and transmitted over data network, when these data packets arrive at the destination these are again converted into standard telephony conversation. This whole process of voice conversion into data, transmission and data conversion into back voice conversation takes place within less than few milliseconds. That is how a VoIP is call is transmitted over data networks. I hope that now you understand basics of how a VoIP call takes place.
What are speech codec’s and what role codec plays in VoIP?
Speech codec play a vital role in VoIP and codec determines the quality and cost of the call. Let me explain you what exactly VoIP codec’s are and how they work. You may have heard about data compression, or probably you have heard about air compressor which compresses a volume of air in enclosed container, VoIP codec’s are no different than a air compressor. Speech codec’s compresses voice into data packets and decompresses it upon arrival at destination. Some VoIP codec’s can compress huge amount of voice while maintaining QoS which means use this type of codec will cost less because it will consume just a fraction of data network. Some codec’s are just not capable of encoding huge amount of voice they simply consume huge amount of data networks bandwidth hence the cost goes up.
Following is a list of VoIP codec’s along with how much data network bandwidth they consume.
* AMR Codec
* BroadVoice Codec 16Kbps narrowband, and 32Kbps wideband
* GIPS Family – 13.3 Kbps and up
* GSM – 13 Kbps (full rate), 20ms frame size
* iLBC – 15Kbps,20ms frame size: 13.3 Kbps, 30ms frame size
* ITU G.711 – 64 Kbps, sample-based Also known as alaw/ulaw
* ITU G.722 – 48/56/64 Kbps ADPCM 7Khz audio bandwidth
* ITU G.722.1 – 24/32 Kbps 7Khz audio bandwidth (based on Polycom’s SIREN codec)
* ITU G.722.1C – 32 Kbps, a Polycom extension, 14Khz audio bandwidth
* ITU G.722.2 – 6.6Kbps to 23.85Kbps. Also known as AMR-WB. CELP 7Khz audio bandwidth
* ITU G.723.1 – 5.3/6.3 Kbps, 30ms frame size
* ITU G.726 – 16/24/32/40 Kbps
* ITU G.728 – 16 Kbps
* ITU G.729 – 8 Kbps, 10ms frame size
* Speex – 2.15 to 44.2 Kbps
* LPC10 – 2.5 Kbps
* DoD CELP – 4.8 Kbps
Switch to VoIP Today and you will never want to use traditional PSTN ever again.
Thanks
-Imran