2008q3: Skype activity spikes, revenue growth slows

eBay Inc. (Public, NASDAQ:EBAY)  reported Skype's financials today. eBay CEO Donohoe was pleased with Skype's management and Skype's performance but still didn't see synergies with the rest of the eBay portfolio.

2008Q4 revenue was $145 million, up 26% from the year before, and a run rate of roughly $600 million annually. Revenue growth is substantial but flattening out.

Skype pulled in 35 million new users in Q4, an enthusiasm not seen since the same quarter in 2006.

While Skype has 405 million user accounts on the books,  we don't know how many are active. We look to Skype calling and Skype dial-tone for clues.

The Skype community spent 23 billion minutes voice and video calling. Skype-to-Skype minutes: 20.5 billion in Q4, up from 16 billion in Q3. SkypeOut minutes grew 200 million in Q4, from 2.2 to 2.6 billion minutes. That's 44 person-years per quarter.

You can't make or answer Skype calls without your Skype "dial tone" (your Skype client is turned on and you're logged in). Skype estimates the number of people connected to the Skype cloud. One statistic, Daily Peak Simultaneous Online, flirted with 16 million this week, a new high. We'll let you know when Skype crosses that line.

See also:

• Douglas A. McIntyre: "Skype added 35 million new users during the quarter and ended the period with more than 405 million registered users. Since most Skype customers use the service for free, all those extra people represent more cost than revenue opportunity."
• Doug Caverly: "Donahoe, who hasn't quite completed his first year on the job, might consider making some drastic changes unless he wants eBay's shareholders to start eyeballing him the same way Yahoo's investors looked at Jerry Yang."
• Eric Savitz: "After hours eBay shares are down 75 cents, or 5.7%, to $12.53."
• Anthony Ha: "Growth in these divisions [PayPal, Skype] can’t make up for the big decline in the marketplaces, and eBay lowered its predictions for the first quarter of 2009 to between $1.80 and $2.05 billion."
• Elise Ackerman: "Donahoe said he is "confident that the synergies between Skype and other parts of our portfolio are minimal," and that he is pleased with Skype's momentum. "It is not a distraction," he said."

tags: skype, ebay, donahoe, earnings, revenue, minutes, stats, statistics, trends, data, sales, 2008, Q4, financials, financial, growth

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