Skype Strategy Makes for Positive Growth

By Lavanya Rathnam
TMCnet Contributing Writer

Skype (News - Alert), the popular VoIP and video chat service that allows users to make calls to anyone who is connected to the Internet launched back in Aug. 2003 and was one of the first to use a hybrid peer-to-peer and a client-server system. Since then, it has gained a lot of popularity and usage and today, that usage is growing at a much faster rate when compared to fixed line and traditional wireless operators.

The biggest advantage with using Skype is the cost-savings compared to mobile and fixed line phones. Also, users can communicate with each other across geographical boundaries for any length of time. In fact, Skype has seen an enormous amount of growth in 2013 despite having intense competition from other apps and mobile providers and this has been associated with its low rates. According to the research firm TeleGeography, Skype to Skype calls grew by 36 percent in 2013 alone and this amounts to more than 214 billion minutes. Out of this, 37 percent of calls were business-related while the others were for personal use.

One of the strategies behind this high level of growth was to roll out a subscription package for corporate users to enable them to use high quality Skype for a low fee. This corporate subscription was a key move for Skype because business customers tended to bring in more revenue than regular customers. Another strategy was to develop Skype Manager to allow IT managers to have a better control over Skype usage within the organization. With this new tool, IT managers can see the “airtime” of different departments and can even view reports on usage and costs. Further, the creation of Skype-equipped televisions has improved the quality of conference calls and has made it a preferred choice when it comes to conferencing software.

Over the next few years will be interesting to see the strategies that Skype management comes up with continue to compete in an increasingly crowded space of VoIP apps. 

Edited by Stefania Viscusi