Skype gets ready to float
Best-known VoIP provider Skype has filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission to allow it to make an initial public offering of its shares. The IPO remains a bit of a mystery - the number of shares on offer and the price range have not been revealed. In 2009 eBay said Skpe was worth $2bn - which sounds like a …
1. Cutting off Fring and making vague statements as to why
2. Nimbuzz service becoming patchier and patchier with logon issues
3. Recent questionnaires whose composition was roughtly 10% about existing Skype product offerings and then 80% about how they could persuade you to part with cash through a mobile service offering
Skype, you're becoming a proper company - pissing off a crapload of people and employing accountants. Expect lots of people to abandon you in droves! I'd guess they'll start making free skype to skype calls harder in the near future when their business model shows how utterly untenable it is...
I wish Skype would stop emailing me, "your credit is about to expire". No other compnay has tried to steal my credits from me(give paypal some time to twig onto this idea). sort it out Skype ill use my credit when i want stop forcing me to try and use it.
Trying to make money out of something that would be free but for peoples ignorance.
In a few years time there wont be the phone network market to charge people to connect to.
What then?
VOIP - voice over Internet protocol - I've paid for the internet already, I'd be stupid to pay someone who would just be a screen washer on the information highway.
Is shit, and there are loads of better alternatives out there already.
I cant see them being able to "monetise" (god I hate that word LOL) their product sufficiently to make ends meet with shareholders etc
Skype is _already_ a business, all about making money. Floating on the stock-market doesn't change that.
Also, making money of the small number of users who pay for premium services or call real phones wile the majority use it for free... this is a very normal revenue stream for online services. It's exactly how online games like ClubPenguin work and is just a modern equivalent of shareware.
Like "Google" and "MSN" are synonymous with "search" and "IM", Skype IS VOIP to the general public and has a big share of that market, regardless that other IM tools offer the same services.
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