Last year was mighty productive for the folks at Vivox, as the voice chat firm doubled its user base and now serves over 45 million customers worldwide. While 45 million is quite a large number on its own, when taken together with the fact that Vivox served a mere 18.5 million users in early 2010, it's easy to see how the competition has its work cut out for it.
Gaming firms including Wargaming.net, Runewaker, and Bigpoint all turned to Vivox for their voice needs in 2010, and company CEO Rob Seaver says that's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. "There is a clear opportunity for voice providers to reshape the social web with a communication medium that has proven to be the easiest, most intuitive channel of communication throughout [...] thousands of years of existence: voice," he said in a press release earlier today.
Vivox also provides voice services for the likes of CCP Games, Linden Lab, and Sony Online Entertainment, and you can find more coverage of the company in our interviews with VP of Product Management Monty Sharma.
Reader Comments (4)
Posted: Feb 16th 2011 2:08PM Slob Zombie said
Some friends and I used Vivox's client Voon for several years and it was a really great fit. The site disappeared, so while anyone with an account and the client installed can still use it, we can't add people. Shame, great service.
Anyone know a standalone VOIP service that uses Vivox these days?
By the way, we've tried renting a Mumble server but we just have constant problems configuring everyone's client. Not very out-of-the-box friendly, although the sound quality is by far the best.
Anyone know a standalone VOIP service that uses Vivox these days?
By the way, we've tried renting a Mumble server but we just have constant problems configuring everyone's client. Not very out-of-the-box friendly, although the sound quality is by far the best.
Posted: Feb 16th 2011 2:20PM crainey92 said
There is a clear opportunity for voice providers to reshape the social web with a communication medium that has proven to be the easiest, most intuitive channel of communication throughout [...] thousands of years of existence: voice," WHAT A FIND!!
No but seriously, the thing about the internet that so appealing about it and the main features of it is anonymity which voice chat strips away slightly. It is obvious though that voice communication is the way to go.
Thats alot of big publishers they have there... personaly I like my Ventrilo server I've had for the past 2 years.
No but seriously, the thing about the internet that so appealing about it and the main features of it is anonymity which voice chat strips away slightly. It is obvious though that voice communication is the way to go.
Thats alot of big publishers they have there... personaly I like my Ventrilo server I've had for the past 2 years.
Posted: Feb 16th 2011 6:11PM Jim Cricket said
@crainey92
I generally feel the same way about Voice chat in MMO's. One big reason (probably the biggest reason) I play is to be immersed in the virtual world and become someone else. Hearing someone else's drawl just breaks that entirely.
It looks like all the "competitive" components of MMO's like team PvP or raiding are going Voice. The result for me has been I don't participate in these endeavours.
One more aspect of the changing internet I guess, as it becomes more like a TV and less like a library.
Reply
I generally feel the same way about Voice chat in MMO's. One big reason (probably the biggest reason) I play is to be immersed in the virtual world and become someone else. Hearing someone else's drawl just breaks that entirely.
It looks like all the "competitive" components of MMO's like team PvP or raiding are going Voice. The result for me has been I don't participate in these endeavours.
One more aspect of the changing internet I guess, as it becomes more like a TV and less like a library.
Posted: Feb 16th 2011 8:24PM foofad said
I've only had two experiences with Vivox. EVE was the first, and the best. APB was the second, and it was absolutely abysmal. Useless. I really hope APB Reloaded fixes that.







