Is 500 million Skype downloads a lot?
Congratulations, Skype! Skype users downloaded the world's leading VoIP program 500 million times today. The current rate is 640 thousand downloads a day, according to Skype data. Adrian Cockcroft observed Skype downloads spike to a million a day during major upgrades. If that rate doesn't change, Skype will cross the billion download mark early in 2009.
Chart by にゃにゃん．と
The latest:
- 171 million user accounts
- 3.5 to 9 million users connected at any one time
Vonage execs dismiss Skype's large user base as not-comparable to theirs. They ask how users that pay for a service, that trust you with their credit cards, are like customers without commitments?
Skype is challenging that opinion. Skype's announced pricing plans may bring some of their customer base into a Vonage-style relationship, monthly payments and all. This migration won't change download rates, but it should boost the number of users connected to the Skype network. It will boost Skype's revenue this year.
What can Skype do to increase virality?
Comments
any idea what caused the big dip in users in the middle of the chart?
Posted by: Kurt Koch | February 19, 2007 09:46 PM
There is a dip as Europe and the Americas leave work and go to sleep. The dip will be less as more people in the Pacific and Asia use Skype over always-connected services vs. computers that are turned off at night or Internet cafes.
Posted by: Phil Wolff | February 20, 2007 10:59 AM