I first met Tokiva’s Tong Li about a year ago when our mutual friend, William Bao Bean, introduced us. Over lunch, in Toronto, Tong showed Howard and myself a relatively modest SMS call back service running on a mobile handset, accompanied by some basic presence features. We left the meeting, promising to stay in touch, as Tong was preparing to move himself to Beijing and recruit a development team.
Fast forward to today’s announcement — Tokiva has emerged from six months of beta test, announced an investment from Zurich based BrainsToVentures, won accolades from their peers, and claims to be growing faster than Skype did in it’s early days. Tokiva has more than 800,0000 users globally.
Moreover, the business has matured. With a sharply defined expat target, they’ve narrowed in on a well defined segment. Now, with a reseller model, mobile email, conferencing, voicemail, SMS and IM call back, and more, they can also make good on their claim of being the worlds first software VNO.
Congratulations Tong. Your business has come a long way since our lunch a year ago.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Tried it – well thought out, easy to set up and register, web site it pretty hokey by web 2.0 standards. They added 100 free calling credits to my account – tried an SMS callback to my home number – call didn’t work, they have a handling charge of .10 cents to process an incoming SMS, this charge took my account below the 100 free credits that are required to use the free service. Without having made a successful call to test it – I am now faced with only one option of buying $20 in credit for a service that has yet allowed me to make a successful call.
If this has 800K active users, I am Micky Mouse.
Thanks Andrew for trying out the Tokiva service.
1. Trial users can make free calls only on the website.
2. The SMS service is available to paying users.
We have made available another 100 paid credits for you to test Tokiva services.
BTW, you’ll get free referral credits by inviting your friends to join Tokiva using your Tokiva Link.
Kind Regards.
Tong Li ( tong at tokiva.com )
Wow, thats service. Thanks Tong!, I will give it another whirl.
dear i registered in tokiva and also i invite more than 10 my friend s to tokiva but in my account same there is no added credit referral pls sole my problem
thanks
Dear malik,
Only valid user will be credited by Tokiva's referral credit system. Prank email addresses are not accepted.
Please make sure you invite real users using your Tokiva Link.
Kind Regards.
The Tokiva Support Team.