Comments on: Skype Revenues Up, but Usage Flat

By: Steven Duong

Steven Duong — Tue, 06 May 2008 05:29:34 +0000

Maybe Skype has already tried this, but in case they haven’t, I think the best way for them to generate revenues is to open up and integrate with SaaS providers where they would charge for this extra integration. I’ve used and tried out a few sites such as Salesforce, SugarCRM and Central Desktop. The scenario that seems to happen is that I have Skype mainly for personal use, but often times, someone will Skype me (call or chat) about business and there’s no way for me to capture and store the information easily onto my SaaS application.

Aside from Skype, this would be true for other SaaS applications, such as online mind mapping apps, desktop sharing apps, online accounting apps like Quickbooks Online Edition, etc. For me, the main application would be centered around a CRM system that is flexible by letting me build different modules and allow for many to many relationships between modules. I guess Salesforce has already done this, so nothing new, but it seems like there are a lot of online apps that can’t easily integrate with each other. It would be wonderful where everything was open with standards and everything could be easily hooked in to each other without the help of a developer.

By: Vaughn Buck

Vaughn Buck — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 04:44:04 +0000

Skypes prices are similar to landline prices. UK mobile, 25 cents is same as many of the international long distance. You don’t need to have special equipment or be near a computer. $30 per year unlimited US/Canada isn’t bad if you’re a heavy user but given how often people use their cell phones for FREE calls after peak and weekends, who cares. At $66m of income, Skype wasn’t profitable, at $79m it was, Ebay needs a HUGE increase in volume to make the cost they paid reasonable. As Vonage is finding VOIP (which is all Skype is) is a commodity.

By: Jesse Kopelman

Jesse Kopelman — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 00:54:55 +0000

“Skype drops calls, produces terrible, garbled voice quality … do you think people have tolerance for this kind of crap?”

Well, the billion plus who use cellphones seem to have good tolerance for it . . .

By: Sramana Mitra

Sramana Mitra — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 15:22:00 +0000

Skype drops calls, produces terrible, garbled voice quality ... do you think people have tolerance for this kind of crap?

For a long time, I have believed that eBay should have spent money on advertising venue oriented companies, and thought that the Skype acquisition was a stupid move. Only now, it seems to me that eBay's leadership is coming to the same conclusion! Read the rest of my thesis.

By: Another worm uses Skype to spread out – 21talks

Another worm uses Skype to spread out – 21talks — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 08:23:46 +0000

[...] Meanwhile, eBay yesterday published the financial results of the company for the last quarter. Skype’s profit has increased from $66 million in Q4 2006 to $79 million in Q1 2007, but the overall Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut minutes stayed flat. [...]

By: anon

anon — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 03:41:12 +0000

Would the half price promo during Q1 cause a one-time burst in revenue or will revenue tick up now that it’s full price?

By: Damon Billian

Damon Billian — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 23:39:35 +0000

Disclaimer: I worked at PayPal many moons ago.

I am actually surprised that growth hasn't been stronger for Skype. As someone that started using the service late, I wish I had started using it earlier for international calls (generally speaking, cheaper than most calling cards & far more convenient). I also wonder if adoption is slower because of equipment issues?

I wonder if Skype will have some pickup because of the Vonage issues?

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 22:44:35 +0000

I suspect that is true, and also it is also the fact that the skype growth is at that point where most people actually have skype and are using skype to make in-and-out bound calls.

By: honza83

honza83 — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 22:07:01 +0000

I’d also suspect that people would talk more over Christmas, as our family did. This would obviously push Q4 results up. It might be good to look at year on year growth for each respective quarter.