Strategic analysis of Skype

Change in patterns of communication has become usual, whether intended for professionals or individuals. Thus, the emergence of internet telephone has revolutionized communications but was limited by traditional difficulties of its technologies. Nevertheless, the market potential of IP telephone is very relevant owing to the undoubted attractiveness of the features offered and its cost competitiveness. Thus in 2003 a new milestone was reached in Internet telephone segment, with a new technology that was much more innovative.

The creators of Kazaa, the software, enabled file sharing based on peer to peer technology; and adapted the peer to peer telephone - Skype. Skype was downloaded 60,000 times the week of its launch. Today, 20 months later, that figure has reached 99 million downloads. This illustrates a remarkable show of popularity among Internet users.

We will try to understand how the Skype software for the Internet is a revolution of IP telephone in terms of both sound quality and in terms of its use. It would be interesting to know the consequences of the development and extent of this new mode of communication on the phone industry.

Skype is a computer application, specifically a technology introduced by the IP telephony company Skype Technologies in late August 2003.

is proprietary software that allows free calls from a computer (with a microphone and a speaker or a multimedia headset adapted for this purpose).
The two founders of this technology, Zenstrom Niklas and Janus Friis are two programmers of the famous Kazaa software by which 400 million Internet users were able to download free music and films via the Internet.

History and key dates:
- 1996: Early research on VOIP
- 1999: first VOIP network
- 23 April, 2003: Skype.com and skype.net domain names are registered.
- August 29, 2003: Release of the first Beta version of Skype
- July 27, 2004: Release of version 1.0 for Windows and launch of SkypeOut.
- October 20, 2004: 1 million simultaneous users were reached.
- February 14, 2005: 2 million users had registered
- March 10, 2005: Launch of the first beta version of SkypeIn.
- March 11, 2005: Skype announces 29 million users;1 million SkypeOut subscribers; 84 million downloads of Skype; 5.98 billion minutes of communication addressed.

The basic technology:
The telephone is basically a communication system, originally designed for voice transmission. Until recently, the phone used a technique called switched network (PSTN): The traditional phones are connected directly to the public for private branch exchanges or through PBXs in business. The transmitted signal is an analog signal and the public switches are connected by specialized networks for voice transport. The telephone number corresponds physically to a telephone line designated on the switch. To make a call, it is necessary to establish a connection, a circuit between the calling line and the line called through these exchanges.

The phone has now evolved and is based on protocols of the Internet under the name of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).

Tags: Strategic analysis of Skype, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), IP telephony