Since starting to use Skype a few weeks ago, Kahn has already encouraged six friends to download the software. “Skype just crept along and then there’s this explosion.”Īccording to Kahn, Skype has gone from 100,000 users to 47 million in less than two years, largely because of viral marketing. “It’s funny the way things grow,” says Barbara Kahn, a Wharton marketing professor and Skype user. More than 1.8 million people use SkypeOut, a pay service that allows users to call traditional phones from their PCs for low minute rates. 4, and the company claims to have 47 million people using its services.
Skype’s software had been downloaded nearly 145 million times as of Aug. Meanwhile, it’s hard to argue with Skype’s numbers. Zennström says Skype is more than just a cheap way to have a conversation and notes that the company will be offering video and a host of other yet-to-be-created communication services in the future. But, unlike most other most other VoIP services, Skype uses peer-to-peer technology to combine the computing resources of all of its usersnot surprising considering that Skype CEO Niklas Zennström also created the Kazaa software that enables people to swap music files easily.
Usersidentified through names instead of numberstalk through a headset and microphone attached to their computers (although the connections require someone else to have Skype). It’s a software application that allows people to talk and instant message for free using PC-to-PC connections. The company touches on a handful of key trendspeer-to-peer technology (using the computing power of a distributed network of PCs), the commoditization of telephone service and the viral nature of Internet marketing. What’s certain, however, is that Skype, which has offices in Estonia, London, San Francisco, Korea and Japan, is worth watching. Skype could remain a mere fad for techies, become a next-generation communications platform or evolve into the next eBay or Google, say Wharton experts. Although Skype, which provides Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony services and PC-to-PC calling, turns two years old on August 29, it remains unclear what kind of business this relative newcomer will turn out to be.
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