08:42 06.05.2006 | All news from "Tech News and Articles"
Skype says 100 mill. I say 75.
id="612972">Skype announced it has surpassed the one hundred million user account mark. This is significant, but let's do somemental math real quick.
Assuming 1 in 10 people who activated a Skype account abandon it because Skypeisn't sticky enough for them, that's 10 million fewer accounts Skype can claim.
Now, let's say 1 in 20 Skypeusers has multiple accounts. Take me, for example. Having multiple accounts is the only way I can test certain features.So one guy, two accounts. Ding Skype's number by another 5 million.
So now we're down to 85 millionactive, real, unique Skype users, right? Well, sort of. You see, in the earlier days of Skype, spamsign-ups were fairly common, and the net effect is probably another 2 million users off the bottom line. Then,you've got the Skype users of China who frankly don't count because they aren't free consumers and can't choose to useSkype in the manner prescribed for all the free nations of the world. These Chinese users may be hobbled, but Skypewants to give them full credit as regular users. So, assuming there are 6 million of them, I'll meet Skype in themiddle. Ding another 3 million. So now, we're down to a mere 80 million.
Finally, take out all of theautomated endpoints and API hacks which use unique user names and I think you're probably down closer to 75million. Not to mention, only 6 to 8 million users are purportedly online at a time. This means that theactive user base is only 10% or so of the total user base. That doesn't scream ubiquity.
Splittinghairs? Probably. They still have the best penetration rate of any desktop VoIP software on the planet.
http://voip.weblogsinc.com/
Assuming 1 in 10 people who activated a Skype account abandon it because Skypeisn't sticky enough for them, that's 10 million fewer accounts Skype can claim.
Now, let's say 1 in 20 Skypeusers has multiple accounts. Take me, for example. Having multiple accounts is the only way I can test certain features.So one guy, two accounts. Ding Skype's number by another 5 million.
So now we're down to 85 millionactive, real, unique Skype users, right? Well, sort of. You see, in the earlier days of Skype, spamsign-ups were fairly common, and the net effect is probably another 2 million users off the bottom line. Then,you've got the Skype users of China who frankly don't count because they aren't free consumers and can't choose to useSkype in the manner prescribed for all the free nations of the world. These Chinese users may be hobbled, but Skypewants to give them full credit as regular users. So, assuming there are 6 million of them, I'll meet Skype in themiddle. Ding another 3 million. So now, we're down to a mere 80 million.
Finally, take out all of theautomated endpoints and API hacks which use unique user names and I think you're probably down closer to 75million. Not to mention, only 6 to 8 million users are purportedly online at a time. This means that theactive user base is only 10% or so of the total user base. That doesn't scream ubiquity.
Splittinghairs? Probably. They still have the best penetration rate of any desktop VoIP software on the planet.
http://voip.weblogsinc.com/