TeleGeography says that cross-border telephone traffic grew 14 percent in 2007 and is estimated to have grown 12 percent in 2008, to 384 billion minutes. Falling prices and rising popularity have flattened the revenues (see graph below the fold). The big bump in minutes (and the flattening of revenues) has come courtesy of Skype, the company owned by San Jose, Calif.-based eBay.
Skype’s cross-border traffic grew approximately 41 percent in 2008, to 33 billion minutes — equivalent to 8 percent of combined international telephone + Skype traffic. Skype uses wholesale carriers such as iBasis and Level 3 for handling its network traffic. Five years after its launch, Skype is now the largest provider of cross-border voice communications in the world, Telegeography says. Or as my friend Andy Abramson would say: The world’s biggest minute stealer.
voip is hot, excellent!!, other players should feel optimistic as they have a big pie to cut from, i wonder if truphone, jajah and vopium can figure out the right approach in 2009?
After yesterday’s announcement it seems they’re ready to embrace that title.
Hi Om,
I know the mobile VOIP is still in a nascent stage, but I would sure like to have details of companies like Truphone, Gizmo5, Fring, Nimbuzz and others. These guys have really made the VOIP market eve more interesting and have proved VOIP is far from dead. In fact the economy that we live in today would be the biggest boost to VOIP.
And here Ebay was lamenting buying Skype, and it may end up working out after all.
We knew all along that AT&T Long Distance was screwing us back then.
revenue must not be confused with margin. long-distance margins are eroding (and already quite thin) and skype is no different from the lot when it comes to margin.
We will see more minute stealing if Skype for Business picks up. Enterprise Voice market is the new cash cow for skype. (Looks like iBasis and level 3 have lot to gain in the partnership with skype) .
@OM
We keep saying that eBay would eventually sell Skype to the highest bidder. Who is that bidder going to be? ILEC,CLEC, Web Giants, Unified Communication vendors etc
GigaOm,
Move your share link! It hides behind the ad block in FF on Ubuntu.
MajicJack is way better than skype for internet phone service. All my friends a switched.
MajicJack is absolute trash and hasn’t got a leg to stand on against Skype…
Don’t believe me? hit the unofficial MJ forums and see for yourself.
I have an MJ unite myself… it’s sitting in a bin with the rest of my junk.
Worst VOIP system ever(hands down).
Skype on the other hand has been nothing reliable for us.
Having invested in a standalone(PC’less) Cordless Skype phon(by GE), Skype has become THE phone of choice in our household. It is the best VOIP solution bar none.
MajicJack sucks!
MagicJack – almost every time I Rec’d a call from one, the called had to call me back on either a landline or a cellphone., I’m not impressed.
Thats awesome! Skype is the leader now providing the best service, but can this winning streak continue? Will google come out with a new innovative and effective service that could topple this market leader? Hope time will answer! Maybe there is some one working from some place to beat this…
On the MagicJack vs Skype debate, there’s a great (objective!) comparison of those two services here . . .
http://tech.spotcoolstuff.com/internet-telephone/magicjack-skype-vonage
. . . along with Vonage. Skype’s international rates are the lowest, probably way they’ve been picking up such a large share of the market.
So far, MajicJack has worked out for me. Skype looks like it will charge you to call someones cell by the minute, whereas Majicjack could care less, I can dail anything in the US for one flat rate per year. Quite a bargin for me, and I need a good bargin these days.
Hi Om,
These figures are amazing. Especially considering that calling Skype users from standard telephones (fixed or mobiles) is a quite difficult task.
We have now developed a service that allows simple calling from any phone to a Skype user. This should boost those figures even more :)
I need a telephone number in order to speak to someone about signing up with skype, about cost, features and how to go about it
@rhonald hyndman
umm i’m pretty sure you just download it and that’s a small part of why its cheaper less labor intensive to keep running
Skype has bunch of fees, They can be eht biggest one but all hetse efes. Come on.