Jajah was a

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

(

Voice over IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

) provider, founded by

Austrians Austrians (, ) are the citizens and Nationality, nationals of Austria. The English term ''Austrians'' was applied to the population of Archduchy of Austria, Habsburg Austria from the 17th or 18th century. Subsequently, during the 19th century, ...

Roman Scharf and

Daniel Mattes Daniel Mattes (born 14 November 1972) is an Austrian internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He is the founder and was CEO of artificial intelligence company 42.cx and a judge and business angel on the Austrian television show '2 Minuten ...

in 2005. The Jajah headquarters was located in

Mountain View, CA Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, the population was 82,376 at the 2020 census. Mountain View was integral to the ea ...

, USA, and

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

. Jajah maintained a development centre in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. On 23 December 2009, it was announced that Jajah had been bought by

Telefónica , S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company with registered office and headquarters located in two different places, both in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the ...

through its subsidiary

Telefónica Europe O2 (typeset as O2) is a global brand name owned by the Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica. The company uses the O2 brand for its subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and Germany. Since 2018, it is also used as an online-only flanker ...

. In December 2013, Telefónica announced that Jajah would shut down at the end of January 2014. Jajah's primary service, Jajah Web, took an approach called web-activated

telephony Telephony ( ) is the field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunications services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice, fax, or data, between distant parties. The history of telephony is ...

, using VoIP to connect traditional phones (landline or mobile). Calls were made without

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...

or user-installed

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

, and in most cases at rates lower than those of traditional phone companies or even free of charge. The company's competitors included

Ribbit Ribbit may refer to: * Onomatopoeia for the sound that a frog makes. * Ribbit (Pillow Pal), a plush toy frog made by Ty, Inc. * Ribbit (telecommunications company), a telecommunications company based in Mountain View, California, acquired by BT ...

Matt Marshall, VentureBeat. �
IntelePeer raises $18M for telephony-Web platform
” November 11, 2008. Retrieved July 10, 2009. and

IntelePeer IntelePeer is a privately held company based in Dania Beach, Florida and is a Communications Automation Platform (CAP) provider of voice, messaging, automation, applications, APIs, and analytics for enterprises. The company is backed by venture ...

.Om Malik, New York Times. �
Why IntelePeer Snagged $18 Million in Funding
” November 11, 2008. Retrieved July 13, 2009.

History

Jajah was founded in 2005 by Roman Scharf and Daniel Mattes. The first beta version of the Jajah Webphone, a proprietary

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network, forming a peer-to-peer network of Node ...

internet telephony (VoIP) softphone, was released in July 2005. Jajah Web version 1.0 (build 1708) released February 8, 2006. Jajah Web version 1.1 (build 1714) including conference calls was released September 12, 2006. On September 27, 2007, Jajah launches a solution named "Jajah Buttons" which enables small businesses or individuals to embed buttons on their Web sites to allow others to contact them by phone using the company's Internet telephony platform. Jajah Buttons caused a notable controversy when

eBay eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...

removed and banned such buttons from auction listings in eBay's site, presumably to protect revenues from its own VOIP solution provided by

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

. On November 19, 2007, Jajah launched the Jajah Direct service, which enables users to make phone calls without having to be next to a computer.Kristen Nicole, Mashable.
Jajah Direct. No Internet Connection Necessary.
" November 18, 2007. Retrieved January 23, 2012.TMCNet.
Jajah Direct Launches
" November 18, 2007. Retrieved January 23, 2012. Jajah Direct is a phone service that allows you to make long-distance or international calls by calling a local number, it works with every phone. There are no free calls using this service. On April 28, 2008, Jajah provideds its proprietary telephony infrastructure, payment processing, and customer care to

Yahoo! Messenger Yahoo! Messenger (sometimes abbreviated Y!M) was an instant messaging client and associated protocol created and formerly operated by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger was provided free of charge and could be downloaded and used with a generic "Yahoo I ...

users using the platform for receiving calls from the

PSTN The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the aggregate of the world's telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local telephony operators. It provides infrastructure and services for public telephony. The PSTN consists ...

network, or for making calls to land lines and mobile phones. Telefónica bought Jajah for a reported $207 million on December 23, 2009. On April 14, 2011, Jajah announced a partnership with Globe Telecom to allow Filipinos living outside Philippines to call home at inexpensive rate. It announced November 30, 2012 that effective January 30, 2013, Yahoo! Messenger will no longer offer Yahoo! Voice Phone In and Phone Out capabilities, the co-branded landline and mobile phone service from Jajah. On January 31, 2014, Jajah closed down its website and services.

Jajah Web

Jajah Web connected existing traditional

landline A landline is a physical telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber from the subscriber's premises to the network, allowing multiple phones to operate simultaneously on the same phone number. It is also referred to as plain old ...

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

s with calls that are set up via Jajah's Web site. Jajah claimed that their service worked with any standard

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

Jajah Direct

Jajah Direct assigned local numbers to international contacts.

Jajah Free Global Calling

Jajah launched a service offering free calls globally on June 27, 2006. The service is limited to specified geographic areas, and Jajah has also adopted a fair use policy which limits the amount of free Jajah calls. Calls between registered Jajah users were free of charge for landline and mobile calls within the US, Canada, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and apply also for landline calls to and within most European countries as well as Argentina, Australia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico City, New Zealand, Venezuela and Zambia. A limitation is that scheduled calls and conference calls cannot be free. In addition, Jajah's

FAQ A frequently asked questions (FAQ) list is often used in articles, websites, email lists, and online forums where common questions tend to recur, for example through posts or queries by new users related to common knowledge gaps. The purpose of a ...

pages said that Jajah asks its customers to pay from time to time (every six weeks). If the user chose not to pay, Jajah would start charging as it would for a normal call. The lowest amount that could be credited to a user account (every six weeks, to retain the free minutes) was $10.

Facebook Calling

In April 2011, Jajah introduced a

application for

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

phones that can be used with

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

contacts.Jason Kincaid, Techcrunch.
Jajah Brings Its Facebook Calling To Android, iPhone Coming Soon
" April 12, 2011. Retrieved April 12, 2011.

References

External links

* {{official website, name=Official website (archived) VoIP companies of the United States Symbian software Internet properties established in 2005 Internet properties disestablished in 2007 Defunct VoIP companies