2008-11-30

Download speed increase

Since the first week of November Skype shows an increased download speed. Previously it fluctuated around 500 downloads per minute. Now: 1400 downloads per minute. Almost triple speed since November 5!
I looked at my other data to see if there are other signs, but they are quite contradictory:
  • Concurrent users online shows a very strong growth, and we could even reach 15 million very soon.
  • Number of purchase orders doesn’t seem to have an increased growth pattern.
  • There is since September a downward trend in Skype.com website visits.
I didn’t notice any special Skype “event” that could explain this increase in downloads and active users.

What other reasons could explain the growth?
  • The economical crisis could be one motivation for people to use the “free calls” from Skype.
  • Perhaps the “Obama Election campaign” is another explanation of the phenomenon: indeed some “Obama teams” used Skype, see the Skype blogs: US Elections: Skype gets out the vote.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I tell you why. The horrible Skype 4.0 beta. People download it all excited and then realize that it looks and works so bad that they are forced to go back and re-download version 3.8.

I really hope Skype make 4.0 much more user-friendly before they release it.

Jean Mercier said...

Well Sugar, i am not at all convinced, because this speed increase happened all at once, and quite a long time after the releases of the new 4.0 beta versions.

And ... most people don't download beta versions.

Anonymous said...

Well Jean, you are right. But there was one day when Skype deceided to make the beta download the default for a select number of people: like it or not.

Jean Mercier said...

Hey Sugar,

Your comment "there was one day when Skype deceided to make the beta download the default for a select number of people" made me wonder. Why do you say that? If this is true, you could be right!