Vonage to Launch Wireless App, CEO Tells Investors
Vonage will launch a wireless application that will allow users to text or call -- domestically or internationally -- without relying on obscure user names, CEO Marc Lefar said Wednesday. Speaking to an investors conference sponsored by Citi, Lefar said Vonage will formally launch its new wireless app within weeks. “It’s our belief that the mobile user experience still has room for improvement,” he said.
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Skype already offers a wireless app, but Vonage’s will be different because it lets customers use their cellphone numbers as “the social graph” and integrates Vonage services on the handset, Lefar said. “No one has successfully integrated all of these features into one, easy-to-use app,” he said. The new app will also allow customers to receive international calls when they're abroad without being subject to international roaming rates, Lefar said. “The real trick is to build full functionality” and still “keep people within the dialer,” Lefar said.
The company gambled badly on social networking applications like Facebook, but it’s now clear that wireless numbers are the best way to expand networks, Lefar said. The new application, which will undergo beta testing among several thousand customers in the days ahead, will allow Vonage to “borrow that number” from wireless carriers and then expand its network through customers’ contacts, Lefar said.
Vonage also will expand its efforts to reach out to ethnic immigrants, particularly Hispanics, sub-continental Asians and Southeast Asians, Lefar said. Vonage sees a lot of potential in the international market and is in “active discussions” with “multiple” potential partners. The company “expects to announce our first partnership agreement in the next couple of months,” Lefar said. Vonage thinks “we can pull through a tremendous amount of international, long distance revenue” through overseas calling, Lefar said.
Domestically, Vonage is considering “white label” partnerships with other carriers, Lefar said. The company has expanded into more than 6,000 retail locations such as K-Mart and Best Buy in the last year, he said.
Vonage expects to ask for some more investment on the operations side in its quarterly call next month, Lefar said. The company might consider what Lefar called “smart acquisitions” in the next year. To be attractive to Vonage, a company will need to “significantly advance our property,” have “very talented resources” with a “premium” placed “on exception software development,” or already have “communities” that Vonage can take over or can quickly develop communities “that we can monetize fast,” Lefar said.
Vonage has been battered in recent years by customers and the stock market. But Lefar said he’s optimistic the company is on the right track. “Given the current state of things, nothing is off the table,” Lefar said, but “for 2012, the goal is to make sure that we have adequate funding to make sure that we drive growth.”