Skye’s chief executive Tony Bates spoke about the success the company has seen in the last year – 25% of their call-minutes were international, grown from 12% a year ago. He described their growth as four times faster than the rest of the telecom industry, currently carrying 520 million minutes of Skype calls each day, which averages to 190 billion call-minutes per year.
Bates gave an example of what he described as very strong consumer acceptance: When the new iPhone app for Skype was introduced on New Years’ Eve 10 days ago, in 24 hours more than 4 million copies of the app were downloaded that first day of availability — and over 1 million Skype iPhone video calls were made. Bates described the mobile category as “the next big thing.”
Skype’s Qik deal
He announced a deal for Skype to acquire Qik, a video-sharing service, just minutes before the press conference. Qik describes itself as follows:
“Qik is a leader in the mobile video space enabling smart phone users around the world to capture special and spontaneous life moments from anywhere and instantly share those moments with friends, family and followers. Qik’s comprehensive solution meets all consumer video needs including video calling, video sharing, video messaging and the ability to sync and save videos to the web and desktop. The Qik service is available on over 200 mobile phones across the Android, iPhone, Symbian, Blackberry and Windows Mobile platforms. Qik has headquarters in Redwood City, California and an office in Moscow, Russia”
Bates declined to talk about what would happen with this acquisition (too early), or to discuss the purchase price or terms (“a private transaction”).
He did announce a new group video conference calling product, allowing up to 10-way simultaneous video calls, to be offered to both consumer and enterprise customers “in a few months.” There is speculation that the Qik purchase was to help implement this product.
Skype TV and in your car
Another announcement was growth in Skype TV — an effort to bring Skype to the main TV screen in the living room. Besides previously announced Samsung and Panasonic models, Skype TV will also be made available on compatible Vizio and Sony Bravia TV sets. For those who do not own these models, the next gen Panasonic Blu-ray Disc player will support Skype.
Another announcement was on a package of software routines and documentation called SkypeKit, which is in beta now and will be in release in a “couple of months”. This product allows third-party developers to “Skype-enable” their products, devices, or services. An example is GM’s OnStar service (which is spreading from the US to the China market), putting Skype in your car, as well as the Panachip Baby Monitor.
Bates described the Skype mission statement this way: “Connect everyone on the planet. On whatever device. Both intimate and everyday.”
He concluded the press conference by playing a video with scenes where Skype had contributed calling capability to international aide workers in refugee camps at various locations, allowing the workers to connect through Skype, helping to reconnect families separated by various disasters.
The bottom-line
What does this all mean? It sure looks like Skype is vigorously pursuing an international marketplace, expanding the reach of their products and services far beyond computer-to-computer voice calls. The Qik buy-out means Skype is going after a high-bandwidth, video-driven future, while partnering manufacturers like Sony, OnStar and Panasonic means Skype will be deeply embedded in our daily devices. Of course, lots of people, including Apple, have tried to take conquer the living-room box and failed. It remains to be seen if Skype, which hasn’t exactly created the best consumer-facing interfaces and experiences, will do any better.
Greg Weinstein is a publisher and producer based in Silicon Valley.
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