The list of video chatting options just got longer.
ReadyTalk, a Denver-based audio- and Web-conferencing service provider, is launching a new mobile-focused product that targets small businesses and millennials. The move is an attempt to land customers who might otherwise use competing services, like Google Hangouts.
ReadyTalk announced today that it has opened a public beta program for its online video conferencing service called FoxDen. The software lets up to 10 people join a collaboration room—or a den, as ReadyTalk calls it—by either clicking on a private link or typing in the conference leader’s e-mail address.
The intent is to make group-work calls easy to access—no dial-in codes necessary—while still being reliable, says David Chao, ReadyTalk’s vice president of marketing and product strategy. Users can also share screenshots of projects they’re working on, allowing coworkers to easily collaborate on a project, Chao says.
The company intends to add features to the service, such as virtual white boards and sticky notes, as well as polling, he says. While the service is currently free to use on Chrome Web browsers or any iOS or Android mobile device, ReadyTalk may start charging after it adds new features later next year, Chao says.
ReadyTalk was founded in 2001, and has grown to be a large employer in the Denver area. The addition of this type of video service is in part due to the company losing out on certain sales because some potential customers would instead use free services, such as Google Hangouts, Chao says.
Beyond Hangouts, FoxDen will compete with the likes of Skype, Fuze, and Join.me, which offer both free and paid options. Part of what differentiates FoxDen is ReadyTalk’s prioritization of mixing audio and video content to ensure a consistent quality of connection, Chao says. The company contracts with Level 3 Communications for its audio and bandwidth delivery.
“If you can provide that easy-to-use, fast access with the reliability that ReadyTalk is known for, then corporations or small businesses would be more likely to use something like FoxDen,” Chao says.
