Currently there are many applications that offer free communication solutions, such as Viber, WhatsApp and others. While some have created their own codecs, others rely on readily available platforms with free media engines. This not only saves the company a lot of money, but it also provides a proven platform that is being used by millions of people around the world; and that is what WebRTC delivers.
This very point is brought by Tsahi Levent-Levi in an article he wrote in a recent blog post.
WhatsApp was recently purchased by Facebook for $19 billion, but soon after the company announced it was going to make voice available on its platform in the second quarter of 2014. This did not give the company enough time to create its own tried and proven media platform for its 500 million users, so as Levent-Levi suggested, WebRTC could potentially be the solution the company uses.
If WhatsApp goes through with this, it will be the largest messaging OTT player that adopts WebRTC, and it will squash any lingering doubts any one has about the viability of WebRTC.
Having all the applications you need in the browser lets users text, talk or video chat with anyone that has the same type of browser. This means no Skype ID, phone number, email address, plugins or any propriety application. Once again, Google has liberated the masses by making WebRTC an open-source platform with a permissive BSD license and by taking it to W3C and IETF standards bodies for standardization so it could become a common component in all browsers.
What does it mean to not have walls or silos? It means if WhatsApp uses WebRTC, it will quickly take away customers from the likes of Viber and Skype because of the limitation their platform places with whom their users can communicate. WebRTC removes the walls of OTT vendors eliminating the need for physical clients and user ID. Without specific signaling, the vendor can decide on how the ID can be used.
Once again this is another technology that will dramatically affect carriers, and they must quickly adapt unless they want to invite the same fate as with SMS. Their apathetic attitude toward SMS has resulted in OTT companies taking away tens of billions of dollars away from them annually. Only time will tell what the full impact of this technology will be on carriers, but their lack of responsiveness suggests they are not taking this technology seriously; perhaps they should be reminded of the number of users WhatsApp has – 500,000,0000.
Edited by
Rachel Ramsey
