What can you say about a company that has generated 100 billion minutes of telephone traffic. Skype has been around for 4.5 years by the way making this milestone an even greater accomplishment.While these minutes were all free, it shows just how Skype has changed the way the world communicates.
I remember when long-distance calls in the US were about 25 cents. If you assume that Skype could charge this amount per minute of calling this would amount to a cool $25 billion in cash.
Of course this exercise is kind of ridiculous -- especially when you consider all these minutes of use are due to the service being free.
Then again, I use Skype video because it is convenient. I would pay may $10/month if I had to for such a service.
Many will look at Skype as the ultimate company that has brought the telecom companies to their knees but it is amazing to me that they are also the company with the most video users.
Why did it take a start-up from Europe to give us the most popular videoconferencing software in the world?
It goes to show you how disruptive companies are generally the greatest innovators as well. But then again, is video so innovative? Providing video software was beyond the grasp of AT&T and Verizon?
It is a shame that the traditional telecom service providers didn't start providing video years ago when Skype hadn't even been invented.
Hopefully they have learned their lesson and will be quick to roll out new services before other disruptive companies take even more of their market share.
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