Skype clocked 10 years last month. Earlier this year, it reported that users were now doing 2 billion minutes daily on the platform, connecting with one another. That’s enough time to ‘watch 1.6 million movies’ according to Microsoft.
Despite its run, it is continually battling competition from Google Hangout which offers some of Skype Premium features for free and Viber amongst others. With more than 700 million registered users, Skype is still in competition. So I thought to personify Skype and what we have below is the output of a sincere conversation!
Hi Skype, how does it feel to be 10 and what exactly are you?
I feel cheerful at 10. I am a noun and a verb (smiles). In few words, I am the king of voice-over-internet protocol. In addition, I provide instant messaging avenues for my users after becoming public in August, 2003, following a good effort by my patrons, five of them of three different nationalities – Estonia, Netherlands and Sweden. A microphone, webcam, Internet access are the simple things you need to make use of me. With this, you can reach any other person using me at zero cost. But if you need to reach any regular land or mobile line, then I will charge you a small fee to keep me in business! And when it comes to video conferencing, I literally lead the way, though Google Hangout seems to be giving me some worries at the moment. There is really no long-distance family relationship or friendship again. I forgot to mention that file transfers are also a possibility with me. My growth and users are my strength.
You were a beautiful bride in 2011 and everyone who could afford it wanted you. You eventually settled for Microsoft. Can you tell me exactly what happened?
I have never been in a hurry to forget that period. My future was a frequent mention in the board room at that point. There were considerations for an Initial Public Offering at some point. Then Facebook and Google felt I was beautiful enough to buy. They both had the capacity to take care of me. I flirted with both of them and that activated the war of offers between the two. Offers were made in the range of $3 – $4 bn. Then Microsoft looked in my direction and shut them up by offering $8.5 bn. Of course, it was only expected that I took the deal.
Now that you are with Microsoft, what do you know?
For fact, I know I am in good hands. Microsoft was beginning to lose the spotlight before then and letting Google or Facebook have me would have meant lesser shares of the industry. So, while it may have looked pretty expensive (I hear some even called it a bad buy), I think it was a good one. Now, don’t forget that my groom also has a stake in Facebook. So it’s all good and Microsoft badly needed to keep this tool out of the hands of Google. Truth be told, Google is a big threat. With their fantastic search engine, Google Plus and YouTube; if you add me to what they already have, they were going to own it all. Microsoft is big enough to take care of me and I am happy here.
Heard of Tango before?
Sure. But the truth is that I was here before Tango. I know Tango is also a free video calling platform that was first released for phones but now has a computer version. My check also shows it is used now in almost 200 countries with about 25 million users; just about four per cent of the subscription to Skype. So you see, even with Tango, I still have cause to dance a tango to the delight of even our Latin American users. But to be fair, I should also say Tango is a decent effort especially with the way it fine-tunes call quality so video calls don’t break off or when the caller is mobile and there is the need to switch tower use.
Thanks for being frank with me. How about Bistri? Do you feel threatened?
Bistri is also cool. It’s a typical open source tool for voice and video technology protocol. And I can see there is no need to download anything before using it. It’s just a browser to browser thing. Which means it can even work on a rival’s platform like Windows Internet Explorer. You can see my patrons are very generous! But the users figure is still laughable at about 2 million. So I do not in any way feel threatened. If anything, I remain the threat.
Is there anything from my continent – Africa-that is in your mould?
Yes, Mara Connect is. We exchanged hellos at California earlier this year. It is owned by an Ugandan called Thakkar Ashish. It is a free mobile VoIP that gives smart phones and other mobile gadget users in Africa access to call and send messages at no cost. But, unlike me, it is still a social venture for Thakkar and his colleagues. I am a business venture. If I guess correctly, I can assume my name – Skype is pronounced more at their meetings than their own name – Mara Connect!
So what is new with you now? Is it anything we should look forward to?
I can also be used now for videoconferencing on Windows 8.1 even though this is not fully public yet. And this has new features. Wait till it’s out. Whatsapp is also a bit of a burden now on the instant messaging front. My users have complained about our deleting message histories without notification. I’ll find a way around that.
There are allegations that you are working closely with security agencies to listen in on conversations. You are also known not to allow people delete user names even when they are no longer interested in using your service or want a change in name.
I really need to get back to work now. I’ve been away for too long.
How about claims of your nodes reducing bandwidth by trolling the airwave even when Skype is not in use?
There are answers to all that. But sincerely, I need to go. It’s not a simple task reconfiguring the telephone industry. And that I have done. I should be thanked for setting this pace.
‘Sola Fagorusi is a writer and social media aficionado.
