Every eighth international call is made via Skype

A study by TeleGeography showed that only in the past 2009y year, the share of Skype in international calls increased by 50% (from 8% to 12%). Thus, at the moment every 8th call "over the hill" is made with the help of Skype. I note that in 2008 the growth was only 12%, and in 2007 it was 14%.


Frankly, this news surprised me a little. I still have more news in my mind about the slowdown in the growth of the number of registered users of this service. They wrote about it, for example, here (2009y year), here (2003), as well as here (2007).

What surprised even more is the fact that the duration of Stype-2-Skype calls increased exactly 2 times.
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What happened over the past year? I was tormented by vague doubts that the reason for this was the crisis and the banal drop in income, and it was this thought that first came to mind. After all, the use of Skype-phones has not acquired a mass character, the growth in the number of Internet users over the past year amounted to no more than 20-22% (according to various sources).
Why did this happen that created an additional 10 billion minutes of Skype-2-Skype conversations in 2009?

I found the main hypothesis in an interview with Steve Tamkivi, which he gave 2 months ago in Amsterdam.
In 2 words, his opinion boils down to the fact that the popularization of video calls has become a decisive factor.
Indeed, last year, 2 laptops were sold for one stationary PC sold in the world (data of Consumer Electronics Association / CEA / at the end of last year), most of them are equipped with an integrated webcam.

So, the studies that Steve refers to say that, for example, the average conversation (voice call) between a child and grandmother / grandfather lasts only 3-4 minutes, while the same call via video call reaches hours (I would like to know how many grandmothers participated in this testing)!

This explains the increase in the duration of internal calls within the Skype network. But how to explain the significant increase in calls through Skype in the total number of international calls - remains a mystery to me.

Interestingly, what assumptions do you have about the reasons for the significant surge in the use of Skype for international negotiations last year?