Yuuguu, the remote desktop / screen-sharing collaboration service which integrates all the main instant messaging platforms is to complete the pack by adding Skype. It officially launches next Tuesday.
That obviously means that as well as chatting via IM during screen sharing you can make free and low cost VOIP calls to your interlocutor. However, there is a drawback as Skype-based screen sharing (as opposed to using IM from another platform) is only Mac-based and will be one to one. But unlike most screen sharing applications, Yuuguu does not require participants to download any software – only the host needs access to Yuuguu. Participants get sent a standard web link that will allow them to view the host’s screen.
The Skype integration will make Yuuguu a pretty competitive offering against many existing online meeting and screen sharing services. The free version is good for 100 minutes a month and supports up to 30 people without time limit.
Yuuguu’s competition is fairly wide. There is Citrix’s GoToMeeting, Microsoft’s Live Meeting and Cisco’s WebEx. In addition there are startups like Glance, BeamYourScreen and TeamViewer.
However the price comparison with WebEX and GoToMeeting shows that Yuuguu’s premium “Plus” service, at $15 per month, allows 30 attendees, which is five more than WebEx at $69 p/m, and twice as many as GoToMeeting at $49 p/m.
Yuuguu makes money from offering a phone conferencing service with a per-minute charge and now its premium version, but clearly it doesn’t rely on revenues from subscriptions as much as its competitors, which is how it is able to attack them from that angle.