Every eighth international call is made via Skype

A study by TeleGeography showed that over the past 2009 year, the share of Skype in international calls has increased by 50% (from 8% to 12%). Thus, at the moment every 8th call “over the hill” is made using Skype. I note that in 2008 the growth was only 12%, and in 2007 - 14%.


Frankly, this news surprised me a little. I have more news in my memory about the slowdown in the number of registered users of this service. This was written, for example, here (2009 year), here (2003), and also here (2007).

What surprised even more was the fact that the duration of Stype-2-Skype calls increased exactly 2 times.

What happened over the past year? I was tormented by vague doubts that the crisis and the banal drop in incomes were to blame, namely, this thought first came to mind. After all, the use of Skype-phones has not become widespread, the growth in the number of Internet users over the past year amounted to no more than 20-22% (according to various sources).
So what happened that created an additional 10 billion minutes of Skype-2-Skype conversations in 2009?

I found the main hypothesis in an interview with Steve Tamkivi, which he gave 2 months ago in Amsterdam.
In a nutshell, his opinion boils down to the fact that the popularization of video calls was a decisive factor.
Indeed, last year, 2 laptops were sold per one sold stationary PC in the world (data of the Consumer Electronics Association / CEA / at the end of last year), most of them are equipped with a built-in webcam.

So, studies to which Steve refers, say that, for example, the average conversation (voice call) between a child and grandparents lasts only 3-4 minutes, while the same call through video calls reaches hours (I would like to know how many grandmothers took part in this testing)!

This explains the increase in the duration of internal conversations within the Skype network. But how to explain the significant increase in Skype calls in the total number of international calls remains a mystery to me.

I wonder what your assumptions about the reasons for the significant surge in the use of Skype for international negotiations last year?