I have performed a project for a major Swedish telecommunications provider, The company was looking for distribution partners for their free VOIP service (like Skype). I approached several portals and other companies that I considered to be potential partners and succeeded in setting up a potential deal with a major European airline that wanted to offer free calling to their customers.
My partner search gave me a fresh look at VOIP and made me realise how little VOIP is used on the Internet by media owners (portals, online services, traditional companies).
Some examples where free VOIP is good, but hardly used:
- why not offer VOIP in online gaming rooms, where several people play bingo, black jack. It adds excitement and stickyness to the online experience
- VOIP can very well be used by online jobboards (e.g. Monsterboard) where people can anonimously ask their first questions about the job, or have a first quick interview.
- VOIP would be ideal in the dating services industry, first chat, than very safe VOIP to get to know the other person better, then a date and then maybe more...
- It is good for many sites that offer services to far away clients in the tourism industry, from hotels to local far away airlines. It would be soo useful to be able to talk quickly on the phone for free to a hotel in far away India, and ask them online how I get to their hotel from the airport.
- not to mention all the insurance companies, banks, transport companies, telecom and energy companies with many contacts with the end consumer.
I presume the integration of Internet and telephone has just started, I am convinced that a next step and improvement for soo many websites would be to add a free telephone address that you click on and enables you to talk immediately, not just the old info@thiscompany.com.
And by the way, something cool, a USB phone that you can take with you as a key hanger: http://www.vonage.com/device.php?type=VPHONE
