Telefónica Digital has bought TokBox as an attempt to move into the video conferencing space.
TokBox was founded in 2007 and is based in San Francisco.TokBox has created a cloud-based API for video conferencing,which companies can place onto their own website,encouraging customers to interact.
Businesses can get the API for free for one-on-one conversations with unlimited minutes or 25,000 minutes per month for group calls.TokBox also offers extra paid-for features,such as additional minutes for group calls,call recording or service level agreements(SLA)to ensure availability.
Now the solution will be integrated into Telefónica Digital's voice and messaging platform,BlueVia,to give the additional video capability.It will also be offered as a tool for developers to build applications around.
"Despite all our progress to date we are still in the early stages of the industry and this is a very exciting opportunity"
Ian Small,CEO of TokBox
"Despite all our progress to date we are still in the early stages of the industry and this is a very exciting opportunity to accelerate the development of the OpenTok platform and rapidly expand its global reach and presence,"said Ian Small,CEO of TokBox.
"Integrating our video capabilities with Telefónica's existing voice and text offering creates an advanced,real-time communications suite for Telefónica's hundreds of millions of customers around the world."
Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed but Telefónica's business division did confirm Small would remain CEO.Telefónica's own director of product development and innovation,Carlos Domingo,will join as chairman.
Matthew Key,CEO of Telefónica Digital,added:"By adding TokBox's unique capabilities to our communications portfolio,we will allow our customers to leverage the full potential of web-based video communications in their own business models."
