Ribbit (telecommunications company)
Encyclopedia
Ribbit is a telecommunications company based in Mountain View, California
. It was acquired by BT Group
on 2008-07-29 for $105 million.
On August 10, 2011, Ribbit announced it was closing most of its external-facing operations and developer program within a couple of months.
The company’s goal is to make voice communications a programmable feature, one that can be easily added to Web pages and software applications. Its competitors include IntelePeer
and Jajah
.
ists Alsop-Louie Partners, Allegis Capital and KPG Ventures. Ribbit officially launched on December 17, 2007. BT Group then acquired the company on July 29, 2008 for $105 million. The company made its platform for application developers public in November 2008.
developers
to interact with telephone networks
. Through its APIs
and soft switch (a software telephone switch) technology, developers can add voice communications and text messaging
capabilities to Web page
s and software applications using familiar programming tools. Ribbit's soft switch supports many voice protocols, such as SIP
, Skype
, and Google Talk
’s XMPP
.
Ribbit Mobile is a software service built on the Ribbit Platform that links landline and mobile phones to the Internet, allowing people who use the service to manage all their calls and messages in one place. Voicemail messages are automatically transcribed and sent to users as email and SMS texts. Ribbit Mobile works with users’ existing phone numbers. Ribbit Mobile also allows users to make calls directly from their computers.
Ribbit for Salesforce is a software service built on the Ribbit Platform that links mobile voice communications to email, SMS text messaging, and Salesforce CRM. Ribbit for Salesforce was voted “Best Mobile App of 2008” by Salesforce customers. Sales professionals can use Ribbit for Salesforce to save voicemail, email, SMS text messages, voice memos, and recorded meeting notes in Salesforce and automatically map communications to sales contacts and opportunities. Voicemail messages are automatically transcribed so they can be easily read, saved, searched, and forwarded.
Bring Your Own Network (BYON) is a program that allows telecommunications carriers to offer Ribbit Mobile and Ribbit for Salesforce to their customers as an add-on service. In addition, the program enables carriers to use Ribbit Platform tools and APIs to develop new consumer services based on Ribbit’s global phone network. Carriers can use Ribbit to avoid long development lead times, staff, and equipment costs associated with rolling out new services.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. It was acquired by BT Group
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...
on 2008-07-29 for $105 million.
On August 10, 2011, Ribbit announced it was closing most of its external-facing operations and developer program within a couple of months.
The company’s goal is to make voice communications a programmable feature, one that can be easily added to Web pages and software applications. Its competitors include IntelePeer
IntelePeer
IntelePeer, Inc. is a privately held company based in San Mateo, California who provides on-demand cloud-based communications services to service providers and enterprises.The company’s competitors include Ribbit and Jajah....
and Jajah
Jajah
Jajah is a VoIP provider, founded by Austrians Roman Scharf and Daniel Mattes in 2005. The Jajah headquarters are located in Mountain View, CA, USA, and Luxembourg. Jajah maintains a development centre in Israel...
.
History
Ribbit was founded on February 23, 2006 by Ted Griggs, Crick Waters, Peter Leong, and Ramani Narayan. The company received a total $13 million in funding from venture capitalVenture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
ists Alsop-Louie Partners, Allegis Capital and KPG Ventures. Ribbit officially launched on December 17, 2007. BT Group then acquired the company on July 29, 2008 for $105 million. The company made its platform for application developers public in November 2008.
Technology
Ribbit offers a platform that allows applicationApplication software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
developers
Software developer
A software developer is a person concerned with facets of the software development process. Their work includes researching, designing, developing, and testing software. A software developer may take part in design, computer programming, or software project management...
to interact with telephone networks
Public switched telephone network
The public switched telephone network is the network of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks. It consists of telephone lines, fiber optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables, all inter-connected by...
. Through its APIs
Application programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
and soft switch (a software telephone switch) technology, developers can add voice communications and text messaging
Text messaging
Text messaging, or texting, refers to the exchange of brief written text messages between fixed-line phone or mobile phone and fixed or portable devices over a network...
capabilities to Web page
Web page
A web page or webpage is a document or information resource that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser and displayed on a monitor or mobile device. This information is usually in HTML or XHTML format, and may provide navigation to other web pages via hypertext...
s and software applications using familiar programming tools. Ribbit's soft switch supports many voice protocols, such as SIP
Session Initiation Protocol
The Session Initiation Protocol is an IETF-defined signaling protocol widely used for controlling communication sessions such as voice and video calls over Internet Protocol . The protocol can be used for creating, modifying and terminating two-party or multiparty sessions...
, Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
, and Google Talk
Google Talk
Google Talk is a freeware voice over Internet protocol client application offered by Google Inc. The first beta version of the program was released on August 24, 2005...
’s XMPP
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence...
.
Products & Services
Ribbit Platform is a multiprotocol, cloud-based environment for programmable communications. Developers, ISVs, and carriers can use Ribbit Platform tools and APIs to add voice, SMS text messaging, and other communications features to any Web page or application. Developers can directly access Ribbit’s global phone network using Flex, Flash, Java, PHP, .Net, Silverlight, and other familiar programming tools.Ribbit Mobile is a software service built on the Ribbit Platform that links landline and mobile phones to the Internet, allowing people who use the service to manage all their calls and messages in one place. Voicemail messages are automatically transcribed and sent to users as email and SMS texts. Ribbit Mobile works with users’ existing phone numbers. Ribbit Mobile also allows users to make calls directly from their computers.
Ribbit for Salesforce is a software service built on the Ribbit Platform that links mobile voice communications to email, SMS text messaging, and Salesforce CRM. Ribbit for Salesforce was voted “Best Mobile App of 2008” by Salesforce customers. Sales professionals can use Ribbit for Salesforce to save voicemail, email, SMS text messages, voice memos, and recorded meeting notes in Salesforce and automatically map communications to sales contacts and opportunities. Voicemail messages are automatically transcribed so they can be easily read, saved, searched, and forwarded.
Bring Your Own Network (BYON) is a program that allows telecommunications carriers to offer Ribbit Mobile and Ribbit for Salesforce to their customers as an add-on service. In addition, the program enables carriers to use Ribbit Platform tools and APIs to develop new consumer services based on Ribbit’s global phone network. Carriers can use Ribbit to avoid long development lead times, staff, and equipment costs associated with rolling out new services.