Web 2.0 Telephone Revolution: Cheap, Fast!

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ANALYSIS, Global — The world is changing today. It’s becoming virtually closer.

You can speak to your friend on the other side of the world. Or call your parents in Connecticut when you are in Shanghai.

And you can talk for an hour for less than a cup of coffee. All via Skype or a discount calling card available from 7/11 stores or newsagents worldwide.

More and more people can even share photos via Flickr or video via sites like YouTube.

Time doesn’t matter. Distance is a concept. Events that happen in the world are now instantly deployable globally (at least where’s there’s internet or phones).

But with new telephony sites starting up and new features on old sites there’s more.

The Upshot - Global new business models are possible

Geography still matters for many physical goods or in-person services businesses, don’t forget that. Barbers, bakers and butchers are not global.

But thanks to internet telephony sites & products we can create global business models.

Models like those 2thinknow has been researching in areas such as consulting, publishing, design, property, governance, investment, advertising and many other industries.

The big businesses have a capital advantage, but not a new business model advantage in these new flexible global models. Vast fortunes can be made.

Cheaper telephony technologies create new business models

Skype, the leader in internet telephony

Skype has improved to be a telephony service integrated with Outlook or your contact manager. Skype can call Skype users or normal telephones anywhere in the world.

Calls that used to cost $3 per minute internationally now cost 0.03c per minute.

Skype carries video calls, conference calls, and allows various moderately reliable traditional phone services. Inbound numbers and outboudn services are improving, further narrowing the gap with traditional services.

Skype and competitors enable all new international business models. Reliability is an issue, so telephony has a place for now. But traditional telephony is a horse & buggy to the modern automobile of internet telephony.

Skype is now owned by eBay. So plenty of capital investment there.

Other innovative value-enabling sites to get you started are:

mBox

MBox an Australian site. Can be used for mass fax receiving or sending without the cost of the fax line or machine. Receiving faxes on a dedicated line is purely a small monthly fee, as are voicemail services.

Fax Zero

Send faxes for free to anywhere in the USA & Canada, with an ad on the front page. Or without an advert, cheap enough.

Abby Me

AbbyMe is a automated voice service that calls a specific numbers and plays an automated message. What’s more it is free and available to all internet users.

New Tools, New Cheaper Business Models

There are many more sites from around the world, creating tools for low-cost business models daily.

This is a revolution of business costs and a large opportunity.

Connect to Christopher Hire.

Speaker. Author. Editor-In-Chief. Executive Director of Innovation, 2thinknow.

Filing. 2thinknow View - Trend Predictions, ANALYSIS, Americas, Asia, Eastern Europe, Emerging, Features, Home, Family & Society, Innovation, Technology & Computing, [English]
Tagged. abbyme, fax, faxing, flickr, IP phones, mbox, skype, telephone, telephony, Video, video calling, Web 2.0, youtube