NowPos- the revenge of the sound bytes…

The internet comprises of content in various formats- text, images, video, audio, animations, document files etc. The bulk of it (about 72%) is just text, followed by images, video & animations in that order. The contribution of audio (via sound files) is probably the least amongst the media formats. But an Indian startup has sets its vision on bringing about a paradigm shift in the web’s content from text to voice and correct that imbalance.

NowPos is a 25 member privately funded Hyderabad based startup and it has created a clutch of innovative voice enabled internet products/services. It believes that, what was once considered impossible for ‘voice on the internet’ is now possible, hence the name NowPos.

In the four months since its launch, NowPos has got off to a dream start. Frost and Sullivan has rated NowPos among the ‘Top 20 Broadband Innovations in Asia Pacific. Red Herring, the international tech. magazine has nominated NowPos among the ‘Eight Indian Start-ups to watch for’. It has also received a big thumbs up in reviews from Forbes & CBOE.

NowPos’s flagship product is a Voice email called Vmail. The first of its kind on the web, Vmail is based on its patent-pending proprietary technology. In regular emails, you need to type text messages; with NowPos, you can record and send a short, three minute voice message to the mail recipient, in any language you wish. It is web based, free and requires no downloads or plugins; and you can send voice emails to any email account (the voice mail recipient need not be registered with NowPos). All you need is a headset and a microphone. The voice messages are encrypted into what the company claims is the smallest sound file size currently available over the internet. Rohit Lingineni of NowPos has informed me that they already have 1.5 lakh signups just in India. They have members from 108 counties and NowPos is one of the fastest growing emails in China, Middle East, Japan and Vietnam, besides India.

I tried out Vmail and I found it extremely simple and uncomplicated. Its interface is just like your regular email application. Recording and sending voice emails is also smooth. When you listen to your first voice email, you can’t help admit that voice communication is inherently more effective than text messages, because of the emotional quotient involved with human voice. I would strongly recommend the readers of this blog to try out NowPos, if not for anything else, then just for the experience of using it.





The second product from NowPos is Freedback. It’s a ‘Talk to me’ customizable widget (somewhat like the Odeo widget) that you can affix to your website, blog, journal or email signature. Using the widget, any visitor to the website can record a voice message, which is delivered as a voice email to the user and the user can reply back to the visitor in a return voice mail. I tried this out as well and IT WORKS SUPERBLY.

(To try it out, click on the widgets below and send a voice mail to my test account using a microphone)

NowPos’s revenue model is two pronged- through internet ads (banner & voice ads) and through turnkey application of Vmail for corporate clients. And this is not all. Going forward, the company has plans to create entirely unheard of concepts like Voice Resumes (job sites), Voice Profiles (matrimonial, social networking sites), Voice Feedback (ecommerce, classifieds portals), Voice blogs, Voice communities and (would you believe this?) something called Video email.

While on this, here’s some quick feedback, that I have for the NowPos team–

- I think what NowPos has created, is really innovative stuff; however I think there is a strong case for improving the visual look/feel of their user interfaces to Web2.0 standards

- With regard to voice email, many users are likely to be too deeply entrenched in their default email applications (Yahoo, Gmail, MSN, Rediff etc) to shift to Vmail; in such a scenario, it probably makes sense to strike direct deals with some of these email service providers and package Vmail into the host application, or even try to create a free downloadable plugin, that integrates Vmail with the MS Outlook/Thunderbird email clients

Overall, NowPos is a very exciting startup; it could very well be a poster-boy for innovation in the Indian consumer internet space.