The increase in usage of Skype to make phone calls (not just Skype-to-Skype, but from Skype to land lines and cell phones) has been impressive, and I can think of some reasons for this phenomenon:
- Pricing: Skype competes with great per-minute fees everywhere. The local competition does not come from local phone companies (all of them with higher prices than Skype), but from calling-card ones: in countries like Spain, calling-card fees are comparable to the ones offered by Skype, and there is no need for a computer (or an expensive smart-phone) to place the calls.
- Globalization and Localization: Skype can be downloaded and used almost everywhere in the World. They have also made a great job localizing the software, and making it a success in non English speaking countries.
- Product: Skype is easy to use, provides a reliable service, and solves a real need of customers.
VoIP services juggernaut Skype has seen its share of international calling minutes jump to 12% in 2009, a 50% increase compared to the year before. And as you can tell from the pie chart below, 54 billion minutes out of 406 billion in total were accumulated by users calling each other Skype-to-Skype last year.
International Calls (in minutes) and Share of Skype (12% of total)
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