Skype is in fourth position, but the data of paying SkypeOut customers is from July 2005! This was just before Ebay swallowed Skype! There were 1.8 million paying customers, according to Skype. No information anymore on this number since then.
End of June 2005 there were a maximum of 3.2 million concurrent Skype users online. End of June 2007 we had a maximum of 9.5 million concurrent users online. This is about 3 (three) times more.
Therefore we could conclude that the number of paying SkypeOut (and other calling plans) customers has also tripled.
With this assumption the ranking table looks as follows:
And therefore number one again!
4 comments:
It would be interesting if you could further elaborate why you conclude that the number of paying SkypeOut (and other calling plans) customers has tripled.
Is it really a fair coclusion? Skype has undergone several important changes since Ebay come into the picture, some which make it less tempting to sign up for a Skype subscribtion.
And when it comes to concurent users, I understand that since Skype was bought by Ebay, Skype updates have come with a default setting which always loads Skype when the user starts his computer.
Well, i said "we could conclude", not "should" (unless this means the same, i am not a native English speaker).
And of course this is a rough guess!
Although i understand your objections, i have some counter arguments:
1. most paying customer, even those who think "Ebay has cheated them" continue to use SkypeOut for calls abroad,because in many cases this is still one of the best options o the market.
2. Skype launched some very aggressive commercial campaigns in the USA and Canada. Quite a lot of new users there are paying customers.
3. Skype ALWAYS loaded by default, even before becoming Ebay, so this argument of yours isn't valid (no offense!)
4. Even if it is only "doubled" Skype comes in the first position.
But again: this is a guess, and i am anyhow almost sure Skype has grown suite a lot since July 2005!
(And also meant without offense: why don't anonymous posters not at least sign with "a" name: Jim, Jack, Jo, Julia, ... ???)
Another important aspect when estimating the total number of paying customers is the churn - how many users do actually use (or refill) their accounts in order to keep from expiring?
/ Andreas
Hello Andreas Anonymous ;-) ,
I agree with the "churn". (I had to look in the dictionary what this word means :-)
It would also be interesting to see how much a paying customer spends (per month, per year). If we had the number of paying customers and the income generated only by the "communications" part of Skype, this would be easy to calculate.
They also generate income through their "Skype certified programs", selling of hardware, etc.
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