Yesterday Skype introduced new subscription or calling plan options that provide more flexibility in terms of matching a subscription option to an individual user’s specific needs. In summary:
Ongoing Plans
The previous local country, regional and worldwide calling plans remain in place with three two changes that I have encountered:
some price increases: for instance, while “Unlimited [...]
Communications Stories, Service Providers, Skype News, Skype Operations, Skype for Personal, Using Skype
So it’s finally resolved. The Skype spinout from eBay will involve Skype’s founders as investors and board members while contributing a cash investment. Skype finally owns the core intellectual property required for Skype to operate at its current cost levels. eBay gets the cash they were looking for but 5% less of the new [...]
Communications News, Skype News, Skype Operations
Skype launches a Canadian Skype store customized to the Canadian market.
When Skype began working with hardware vendor partners a few years ago, it also realized there was an opportunity for revenue generation by hosting a store where a Skype user could purchase Skype Certified headsets, phones and webcams. However, it also quickly became apparent [...]
Skype Hardware, Skype Operations, Skype Partner News, Using Skype
Note: Denali InterConneXions, publisher of Voice On The Web, has taken on In Store Solutions as a business development client; see the more complete disclosure at the end of this post.
Over my three years of following Skype as a blogger there have been many ups and downs in the availability of Skype Certified hardware. [...]
Skype Hardware, Skype Operations, Skype Partner Solutions
Consider this a “Retweet for video”; in Renee’s dialogue/interview with/between Skype’s Chief Blogging Office Peter Parkes and Robert Scoble we learn a lot about the evolution of Skype’s approach to using social media. Skype sees social media as a key channel for engaging customers in conversations as a complement to both their marketing and support [...]
Skype News, Skype Operations, Social Media
Yesterday eBay held an analyst event at its San Jose headquarters location with a keynote by eBay CEO John Donahoe followed by presentations by various eBay executives and Skype President Josh Silverman.
Josh’s presentation broke a lot of new ground for Skype addressing issues such as:
How does Skype generate revenue?
What drives Skype’s cost model?
How will [...]
Skype News, Skype Operations
Josh Silverman joined Skype as President early in the spring of 2008; since then he has been reviewing Skype’s opportunities and building a team of experienced executives who can bring to Skype the products, programs and team building expertise required to operate a business with a run rate of $600MM per year, 20% contribution margins [...]
Skype Channels, Skype News, Skype Operations
There’s a “new sheriff in town” when it come to running Skype; CES 2009 was a “coming out” event for the new executive team.
CES 2009 provided an opportunity to catch up personally with many of the vendors we have covered in Skype Journal including Skype, Truphone, SlingMedia, Philips and Research in Motion (BlackBerry). I also [...]
Skype News, Skype Operations, Skype Partner Solutions, Skype Platform, Skype on Mobile
Today Ireland’s favorite communications entrepreneur, Pat Phelan, put up a post: “How Popular is Skype, really?” Shows the potential for both Skype and its (prospective) partners, should the new executive team be able to execute on a restructured Skype and a viable partner program. And it shows the relative magnitude of the challenge that Truphone, [...]
Communications Stories, Skype Operations
Guest Post by Hudson Barton, The Borderless Communicator
2008 is turning out to be a great year for Skype growth (real users), nearly matching the record year of 2006. In my view, the patterns of Skype growth are affected by:
The popularity (name recognition) of the software itself… in comparison to communications alternatives.
The capability of computers and [...]
Communications Stories, Skype News, Skype Operations, Using Skype
Borderless Communicator Hudson Barton has spent the last few years as the “keeper of the ‘real users’ statistic”, a measure of Skype usage that attempts to understand the demographics of Skype’s user base and put it into some sort of perspective so that it can be compared with other communication services.
There are only five public [...]
Skype News, Skype Operations
If we go back to our early September interview with Josh Silverman where we discussed “The Way Ahead – Platforms and Partners”, Josh stated in response to our question about addressing ongoing partner communications issues:
I take the partner program really seriously and we’re aware that we’ve not invested adequately behind it and want to [...]
Skype Ecosystem, Skype LLC, Skype News, Skype Operations, Skype Partner Solutions
This is the fourth and final of four posts resulting from an interview with Nart Villeneuve, principle investigator of the Citizen Lab report “Breaching Trust”.
Having discussed some background to Nart’s research, the activities of the Citizen Lab and answers to Phil’s questions, Nart had a couple of recommendations for Skype going forward. As background, the [...]
Skype Ecosystem, Skype News, Skype Operations