Skype download rate suddenly triples

Guest post by Jean Mercier, Skype Numerologist

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.

tags: skype, trends, downloads, stats, statistics, chart, growth, november, 2008

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