Monday, December 18, 2006
Skype: 27 billion C2C minutes in 2006
Bruce Meyerson, writing for AP, says
Even if most of these minutes are new minutes that are only there because C2C Skype is free, this is impressive -- in part, because with new computer devices, e.g., open WiFi phones, it is getting hard to distinguish a C2C call from a Phone-to-Phone call. In addition, the new computerphones are erasing the ease-of-use factor that keeps us glued to RJ-11.
Hmm. If $27 billion minutes represented 27 billion unspent dimes, presto: the price eBay paid for Skype. At a more realistic penny-a-minute, it's still a price-to-opportunity cost ratio of 10. Viewed through such opportunity cost colored lens, wouldn't it have made more sense for a telco to have bought Skype?
Hmm. The growth factor for International minutes, 1.5, isn't bad either. A naive projection (the only kind I know to do) would give Skype 100% of the International voice traffic in about 7 years.
[Thanks to Kevin Taglang and the Benton Foundation for their most excellent daily telecom headlines list for the pointer to Meyerson's article.]
"TeleGeography estimates that Skype users are on track to make over 27 billion minutes of computer-to-computer calls this year, with about half of them used for international long distance (all free). While that sounds like a lot, it still represents just 4.4 percent of total international traffic in 2006, up from 2.9 percent in 2005."
Even if most of these minutes are new minutes that are only there because C2C Skype is free, this is impressive -- in part, because with new computer devices, e.g., open WiFi phones, it is getting hard to distinguish a C2C call from a Phone-to-Phone call. In addition, the new computerphones are erasing the ease-of-use factor that keeps us glued to RJ-11.
Hmm. If $27 billion minutes represented 27 billion unspent dimes, presto: the price eBay paid for Skype. At a more realistic penny-a-minute, it's still a price-to-opportunity cost ratio of 10. Viewed through such opportunity cost colored lens, wouldn't it have made more sense for a telco to have bought Skype?
Hmm. The growth factor for International minutes, 1.5, isn't bad either. A naive projection (the only kind I know to do) would give Skype 100% of the International voice traffic in about 7 years.
[Thanks to Kevin Taglang and the Benton Foundation for their most excellent daily telecom headlines list for the pointer to Meyerson's article.]
Technorati Tags: DisruptiveTechnology, Skype
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