Skype is Less Than 20% the Size of Facebook

Guess what? Skype is WAY smaller than Facebook – and getting even smaller every day.

I have been delving into it in the past – how VoIP OTT vendors stand to lose the most because of WebRTC – and how the reason for it is going to be social networks. I even did a comparison between Skype and Facebook. This week, two separate things happened that strengthen the difference between these two players, and shows just how much a company like Skype is vulnerable – not from the likes of Viber but from the likes of Facebook.

1. Skype reports 2 billion minutes a day

The web was full of it. Skype comes out with a nice infographic and people start congratulating it.

Nick Summers on The Next Web calls it "a colossal figure". Jim Courtney on Voice on the Web suggests that "it's bound to continue the growth". Guess what? If it is billions of minutes that interest you, then you might want to know that over a year ago, Facebook had 10.5 billion minutes a day – and that doesn't include mobile. Where does that place Skype? At less than 20% the size of Facebook when it comes to interactions.

2. Facebook Home

And if mobile is the final frontier these days (not including Glass or Watch), then Facebook Home is the enterprise going boldly where no other OTT has gone before – into the front and center of the smartphone. Natasha Lomas says it best on TechCrunch, where she analyses the winners and losers of Facebook Home:

The companies Facebook is seeking to move against here are, first and foremost, the free messaging apps such as Line which have been creeping into its social networking back yard.

Skype isn't a casualty. Yet. Remember that Facebook is already delving into the realm of mobile VoIP – the moment they stitch that into Facebook Home – will users be in any need of launching Skype to make their calls? - It is unfair to compare Skype's numbers and size against that of Facebook. This is apples to oranges – Facebook provides a lot of other types of interactions, unrelated to VoIP – and yes – Skype probably does have more voice and video minutes than Facebook – but will there be a place for pure VoIP players, or will social networks (hint: Facebook) find a way to make their user experience so compelling we won't even remember we used a VoIP app (hint: Skype)?