Skype fiscals prove it's not the phone calls, but the services
Parsing Skype parent eBay's 4Q and 2006 earnings reports today, we learn that:
Skype net revenues totaled $66 million in Q4-06, a growth rate of 164% over the $25 million reported in Q4-05. The Q4-05 revenue amount represented the operations of Skype from the acquisition date of October 14, 2005 through the end of Q4-05.
Skype had 171 million registered users at the end of Q4-06, representing a 129% increase from the 75 million users at the end of Q4-05.
What's interesting here is that Skype's revenue growth is outpacing its subscriber growth. The natural interpretation of that could be that Skype's market for paid services is expanding on a per subscriber basis. More services-not only SkypeIn and SkypeOut but video as well. That'll boost the totals.
Phil at Skype Journal parses the numbers with considerably more detail:
164% YOY growth net revenues
- Q4-2006 $66 million (91 days)
- Q4-2005 $25 million (75 days of operations - from the acquisition date of October 14, 2005 through end of Q4-05)
129% YOY growth registered users: More than 380 thousand new users every day in Q4.
- Q4-2006 171 million, 35 million new accounts in the quarter
- Q4-2005 75 million users.
After including the graphic I've reproduced at the top of this post, Phil adds these Skype fiscal factoids:
Yes, but what about the inexorable and inevitable move that will likely result in free worldwide outbound calling within a couple of years?
I think Skype is getting the idea right. It's not the phone rates, its the services.