Sure, Skype can shave a few bucks off your phone bill. But now it’s helping savvy entrepreneurs create brand-new business models.
A million people worldwide, 300,000 of them in the United States, will rely on Skype as their primary means of business communication in 2007, according to telecom analyst Albert Lin at American Technology Research. And those are just the power users: Skype says nearly a third of its 113 million users now log on to make work-related calls.
That suggests the next few months could be a boomtime for brand-new Skype-based business models. What can’t you do with an intercom on the Web?
“This is a growth industry,” Lin says. “Most people look at Skype and think they’re just going to save money. It’s only recently you’ve seen any attempts to turn the technology into another business.”
It’s not just language learning. Skype users are offering everything from voice-overs to band rehearsals. Mark Miller, a Chicago-based piano teacher, uses Skype to give music lessons to students as far away as Australia. And as the customer base grows, so will the opportunities.
Mexxad on April 18th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
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