Principled Innovation LLC

TDOB#2: Skype Rocks!

May 16th, 2006

Yesterday was a quiet first day in the Ten Days of Blog, mostly because I was quite busy with the on-going set-up of my new home office. (Got the printer working…yeah!) But very late last night, I started writing this post about yesterday’s big announcement from Skype that all calls by US and Canadian users to landlines or mobile phones within the United States and Canada will be free for the rest of 2006. (Previously, Skype customers in both countries had to purchase SkypeOut credit to make those calls, whether to someone across the street or across the country.) As a matter of fact, it was so late last night, I feel asleep in front of the computer! (Par for the course for me…)

So in case you don’t know already, I am a big proponent of Skype. I use a SkypeIn phone number for my office instead of a landline and I really love the service. Combined with the company’s recent announcement about Skypecasts, it looks like Skype (and its owner, eBay) is charging hard to build market share in the North America. Indeed, the company’s press release yesterday was crystal clear about the strategic goal of the free call move:

Skype anticipates that completely free calling in the US and Canada will expand Skype’s increasing penetration in North America and solidify Skype’s position as the Internet’s voice communication tool of choice.

As a Skype/SkypeOut/SkypeIn customer, I certainly want the company to succeed, so this announcement truly delights me. As a strategist, I’m also wondering whether this decision is a smart and opportunistic response to recent revelations about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) database of phone call records developed with the assistance of major phone companies such as AT&T and Verizon. Recent polls suggest that there is substantial anger over this program, which is apparently leading some customers to drop their service with the phone companies who cooperated with NSA. Might Skype be acting boldly in order to benefit from these developments? An interesting question indeed…

Regardless of Skype’s strategic motivation or intent, I think this is a great development for associations. Skype is an excellent, cost-effective tool for communicating with your members and, if you work in a small staff office, it could be a viable alternative to traditional (and often quite expensive) phone systems and services. I encourage association leaders to begin using Skype in some way, just to learn more about what it can do.

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Entry Filed under: Principled Innovation Blog, Social Media, Innovation, Associations, Extreme Makeover, Ten Days of Blog