Show Daily: What have been the highlights this year for Skype?
Josh Silverman: Skype is one of the fastest growing six-year-olds in history.
With over half a billion users worldwide, Skype now accounts for 12% of the world’s international calling minutes.
We also have a proven business model with growing revenues and three-year track record of profitability. We exited 2009 with $716 million, which is 30% annualized growth over 2008.
This year, in line with our vision to enable ubiquitous communications, we rolled out Skype on HDTVs in partnership with Panasonic, LG and Samsung.
We’ve made good progress in mobile with Skype available on major OS platforms today. We’ve recently announced 3G calling on the iPhone and made available Skype video calling on the mobile platform starting with the Nokia N900.
While we continue to invest in core, free services to provide our users with an even better experience, Skype users are also telling us they want more. And they’ve told us they are willing to pay for it.
We launched new monthly subscriptions that offer great flexibility for less, expanding calling destinations from 40 to 170.
Operators have started moving away from blocking your service and are now cooperating with you. How have you evolved the way you work with mobile operators?
We are pleased with the success of our relationship with 3 in the UK and most recently Verizon Wireless. More carriers are starting to recognize the value that a partnership with Skype can bring. Data from 3 show how apps like Skype can be a valuable acquisition and differentiation tool as well as a way to improve loyalty.
In addition, an independent survey by CCS Insight showed that Skype users not only generated 20% higher revenue margins but also showed a lower churn rate than other customers.
On the demand side of things, more than 80% of Skype users say they would like to be able to access Skype on their mobile. We believe that valuable wireless internet applications, like mobile VoIP, will drive mobile internet adoption and promote the uptake of wireless carriers’ internet data plans. More users will likely connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within five years.
Open mobile devices and networks are the future of communications. Skype sees a future that is more open and connected, to the great benefit of consumers.
How has Skype benefited from the explosion of the mobile internet and smartphones over the past two years?
Making Skype available everywhere through mobile devices is essential to fulfilling the company’s vision of “enabling the world’s conversations”; and the explosion of mobile internet and smartphones over recent years has played an important role in helping us do just that.
Today, Skype is available across most OS platforms, either through direct to consumer downloads or via operator partnerships. Skype for Symbian launched in March this year, has enabled more than 200 million smartphone users to have Skype at their fingertips.
And our iPhone app, which now offers calling over Wi-Fi as well as 3G, has had more than 12 million downloads, making that approximately 15% of all iPhone and iPod touch users. Skype has led in revolutionizing video communications, now available on the mobile platform, starting with the
Nokia N9000.
What’s the market like for non-smartphone users?
Our plan is to make Skype available on a broad range of mobile phones/ devices and platforms so that our users can have Skype conversations wherever and whenever they are. As the industry changes and evolves, we are evaluating new ways to provide users with a mobile Skype experience. We have and will continue to partner with mobile device manufacturers and are targeting mobile platforms where we are able to deliver optimal Skype end-user experiences.
What’s your main focus at CommunicAsia2010?
Our participation in CommunicAsia underlines Skype’s continued commitment to Asia, with the event providing a targeted platform to showcase how Skype works across different platforms and devices.
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