|
Tellme Networks, Inc. was an American company founded in 1999 by Mike McCue and Angus Davis,〔.〕 which specialized in telephone-based applications. Its headquarters were based in Mountain View, California. Tellme Networks was acquired by Microsoft on March 14, 2007, for approximately $800 million; the deal closed in late April 2007. In 2006, Tellme's phone network processed more than 2 billion unique calls.〔.〕 Tellme established an information number, 1-800-555-TELL, which provided time-of-day announcements, weather forecasts, brief news and sports summaries, business searches, stock market quotations, driving directions, and similar amenities. Operating by voice prompts and speech-recognition software, it was set up in 2000 as a loss-leader service to demonstrate the Tellme functionality to U.S. consumers. The voice of the Tellme service is Darby Bailey.〔.〕 In early 2012, Microsoft divested itself of Tellme Networks' interactive voice response (IVR) service and the majority of its employees to ()7 Inc.〔.〕 The service was moved to a non-toll-free number at 408-752-8052. == History == In April 1999, the Tellme founding team, consisting of Mike McCue, Angus Davis, Rod Brathwaite, Jim Fanning, Kyle Sims, Brad Porter, Michael Plitkins, Hadi Partovi, John Giannandrea, Andrew Volkmann, Anthony Accardi, Patrick McCormick, Danny Howard, Vicki Penrose, and Emil Michael assembled in Mountain View, California. In 2000, Tellme announced a service that delivered content to telephones—a concept called voice portals. Early competitors included TelSurf Networks, BeVocal, Hey Anita, and Quack.com. Quack.com was founded in 1999 and acquired in September 2000 by America Online for its competing service, AOLbyPhone. At least ten additional competitors appeared in 2000 in various attempts to mimic the funding success of Tellme.〔.〕 Tellme was featured in the 2001 documentary ''Wild at Start''.〔.〕 and was referenced in a 2000 Malcolm Gladwell article in ''The New Yorker'' about recruiting.〔.〕 In 2008 the company debuted a feature especially for Christmas Eve; callers can dial 800-555-TELL and hear recorded messages from Santa Claus. If called on Christmas Eve, Santa will say what state he is traveling over, and what exactly he is doing. In 2009 they added a service that allows you to receive messages a week early from Santa explaining what he is doing to prepare for Christmas. At the onset of service, as a way to gain more users, they offered a free long distance call feature. Callers would call Tellme and were given 1 free minute of long distance call time to their desired phone number. That service was later stopped while other services persisted. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tellme Networks」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|