Stuart Henshall surfaced a couple of links this morning showing that VoIP apps are failing on Facebook. I'm not sure how iotum ended up on that list, since we're not actually a VoIP app, but you know Stuart's absolutely right and the outcome was predictable. The vast majority of VoIP applications on Facebook are simple click-to-call minute stealers. The vast majority of Facebook users are in the US and Canada, where per minute calling costs are approaching an all-time low. The majority of Facebook users are students — mobile phone users — as well. In fact, 27% of Facebook users are users of Facebook mobile. So it's not really a surprise that minute stealers are having a tough time. In fact, I'll go further — anybody who believes that users will really fire up a PC and log into Facebook to make a call when you can just pick up the phone and call for pennies, is deluding themselves.
There are communications applications on Facebook, however, which are succeeding. Value added applications, in particular, are carving out a niche. These are the applications that the Voice 2.0 Manifesto predicted would be the successors to the minute stealers. The conference calling and anonymous calling services, for instance.
Stuart's data was a little bit out of date, relying as it did on a month old post from The Latest Geek Stuff. Here's an up to date list of current communications applications and usage on Facebook, from Appsoholic.
For what it's worth, our FREE Conference Calling application is hitting its stride as the viral effect kicks in. We're currently adding over 2,500 new installations per day. As of a few hours ago, we passed 20,000 installations. And, we moved into the number three spot on this list today, passing SkypeMe.
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