Three years after Microsoft Corp. acquired Skype
for $8.5 billion, several former staffers of the Internet calling service are
introducing a mobile messaging app they hope can outduel the mounting
competition. The service, called Wire, combines audio calls with a variety of
other tools for sharing media and messages with a group of friends. The app
becomes available for download Wednesday in the stores run by Apple Inc.
and Google Inc.
Wire is relatively late to the messaging game, considering
how quickly some apps have risen to prominence. In the two years Wire was in
development, Snapchat Inc., TangoMe Inc., Kik Interactive Inc. and others have
collected tens if not hundreds of millions of users and raised venture capital
at soaring valuations. Facebook Inc.’s purchase of WhatsApp for $19
billion earlier this year further sparked a flurry of investment in startups
vying to develop the next popular communication tools for mobile devices.
For a new entrant in the market to succeed, it is important
to have an edge Wire’s most obvious competitive advantage is the pedigree of
its team. Jonathan Christensen, Wire’s co-founder and chief executive, sold a
startup to Skype Technologies SA in 2006 and served as an executive at the
Internet-calling service through its 2011 acquisition by Microsoft. The
startup is backed and advised by Janus Friis, one of Skype’s two co-founders,
who saw an opportunity to rebuild a communication tool that combines the many
ways online users now share information.
Like other services, Wire lets users pull in contacts from
their phone contact lists, and suggests other people they might know using the
app. Users can set up groups around common interests and be notified every time
someone adds a photo or video or text message to the group.
Mr. Christensen said the company has developed new
technology to make voice calls sound crisper than on other services. Unlike
Facebook and other tools for group messaging, any user can kick others out of a
group. Mr. Christensen said this is a more efficient way to manage groups
because it avoids the bottlenecks that occur when one or a few administrators
have that power.
Users can post SoundCloud and YouTube files by employing
embedded players within the app. The company might do more integrations with
other types of media in the future. The company eventually plans to earn money
by selling add-ons within the app.
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