Free ad based voice service from jajah and talkster

Free ad based voice call is catching up. Recently it was pudding media, which launched their ad based free voice calls platform. Most of the folks in the blogosphere gave thumbs down to this application. Initially, even I was very hesitant with the approach, later realized you don’t get free beer for nothing. Also, I wouldn’t call it as complete private intrusion. It’s software that is listening to your conversation. Infact, according to an Article from rcr news, users are willing to share personal information for free calls.

So from what I read, Jajah and Talkster also support free voice calls based on ads.
Here is the a snippet of the announcement from jajah
“ We developed a non-intrusive approach. Whereas in-call advertising would normally interrupt a call and disturb the caller, we simply overlay the message above the ring tone right before the call starts. Businesses get guaranteed caller attention, whilst at the same time not alienating our users with intrusive messages that break the rhythm of a telephone call “

Look’s like jajah wants to be AdWords for phone. I remember pudding media also wanted to position themselves as the Adwords for phone. So most of the startups are trying to follow the success of Google adwords, and are applying the same in the voice space. Will it be successful, time will tell.

What’s more interesting is their partnership announcement with Oridian - Online media solutions ltd. This is a very smart move. Oridian already has a large advertisement network, jajah can easily leverage on the existing companies that are being served by oridian. I find this more compelling than other ad based free call startups. You need a strong backing from companies that might be willing to shell out some money to support this kind of model. In addition, this is a new concept and will take some time for the users and the companies to accept the technology. So surviving the beta period is critical. I guess jajah is well positioned compared to any other startup in this arena.

Another company supporting free ad based calls is talkster. This is indeed an interesting move. Though, their calling model resembles rebtel, they are completely free. I guess this is one of a kind free call deals. Jajah and rebtel do charge users for using their service. Looks like talkster is completely free. Nevertheless, I fail to understand their revenue model. Off late, it’s become a mystery for me to understand the whole VOIP widgets and Free ad based voice calls revenue model. Are these guys looking at the Eye Balls as revenue or make fast buck by selling the user base to some bigger player.
Well, looks like interesting stuff happening in voice space.