Larry Kless' Weblog: Skype

Showing posts with label Skype. Show all posts

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Original Video Bloggers Reunion, 4/18/2020

The coronavirus global pandemic of 2020 has had a worldwide affect on video communications and entertainment that harkens back to the early days of video blogging. Newsrooms, TV talk shows and other entertainment outlets have stayed on the air through makeshift DIY production sets outside their regular broadcast television studios using laptops with webcams, mobile devices and videoconferencing applications like Zoom , WebEx, Skype and other platforms that have powered business communications for years. The production quality mirrors the early days of video blogging with low-cost production tools and genuine and honest delivery on camera. Viewers have excepted lower quality audio visual standards for the immediacy and need for normalcy during these challenging times with millions ordered to stay at home to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Pioneer video blogger Steve Garfield organized an original video bloggers reunion on Zoom today to catch up with other "OG" video bloggers who helped shape the online video industry, including Dina Kaplan, Enric Teller, Drew Olanoff, Niko Rantala, Chuck Olsen, Bill Streeter, Josh Wolf, Rupert Howe, just to name a few.

Watch the conversation here:

Starting in 2004, Garfield was one of the first video bloggers. He helped spark a revolution of user-generated content (UGC) on the Internet which still influences television today. Reflecting back on that time, he says that 2020 is the Year of Live Videoblogging,

"16 years ago I was one of the first video bloggers. I figured out how to combine the ease of use of blogging with the power of video, to help people easily share stories. Now, when many people are self-quarantined at home, to help flatten the spread of COVID-19, they are looking towards video to feel connected. It makes sense. Video has the power to help people connect through storytelling. A lot has changed since 2005, when I made my first videoblog post. Five years later, I wrote the book on videoblogging for Wiley, Get Seen. Now, a good portion of that book is history. It's a history book. ;-) Containing many cameras, video making tools, and software that aren't around any more."

Monday, January 2, 2012

Online Video in 2011: A Look Back - Part 1

As we said goodbye to 2011, many articles focused on what a big year it had been in online video. While most the news revolved around YouTube, Facebook, Apple and Netflix, there was a lot more going on in online video. I recall that on New Years Eve last year, many people had said that we'd be "turning it up to 11 in 2011" and everyone I talked with over the year was kicking it up a notch across the industry. As we start another year, I want to extend my thanks to everyone who reached out to me in 2011 to contribute material to this blog, and while I couldn't cover everything that came my way, I do appreciate the time you all took to share your news and commentary.

While my output of blog posts declined, the number of video interviews increased dramatically, and I think that provided richer content through the series of online video conversations I featured throughout the year. To all of you who read my blog, watch my videos, subscribe, retweet, comment, and connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Facebook and at conferences, industry events and meetups – I thank you. I am incredibly grateful and humbled by your support.

It was also another year that consumed my time and energy like a ravenous beast that could not be tamed. I looked back on my post a year ago, and I thought I'd follow a similar format as last year and recount the news I covered on this blog in 2011 and conversations I had along the way.

I started 2011 with a 3-part year-end review about how 2010 Was a Breakout Year for Online Video and that online video was finally showing promise as a replacement for the traditional television and cable industry, and businesses and organizations of all sizes, started to integrate video into their communications, marketing, PR and training programs.

In a surprise move at CES 2011, Skype announced its acquisition of Qik, the popular live mobile streaming startup which I said helped consolidate Skype's position as the leader of the live video calling market. More big news about Skype followed a few months later, when Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 billion. As the first week of 2011 came to a close, many trends had already emerged from the annual CES show. 2011 would ne known as the year of the tablets, 3D TVs, connected devices and mobile, and without actually being at the show, Apple's news that iPhone will finally be coming to Verizon overshadowed much of the other news, and that turned out to be a theme throughout the year.

Each year also brings out the many predictions of how online video, social media and technology will shape the consumer and business markets and set the stage for the future. The growth of online video was a no brainer, and many predicted that 2011 would be a breakthrough year for video advertising, with mobile devices viewing the majority of video ads. Social media integration into advertising was also expected to grow with video properties emerging as the top ad networks. I shared my annual collection of predictions for the coming the year: 2011 Predictions from Around the Web - Online Video, Social Media, Technology and More

Just few days later, when it appeared that the online video industry was moving toward a video standard, with H.264 video playback in HTML5 – more chaos ensued with Google's announcement of its plans to phase out support for H.264 in its Chrome browser, in favor of open source formats like its own WebM or Theora. The overwhelming response within the online video industry is that this move by Google would set the adoption of HTML5 video back even further, and for online video publishers, cause even more confusion and increase in video publishing costs.

Many both lauded and lambasted Google's decision while many others have shrugged it off as not being a really a big deal. Regardless of the debate around "open" and "closed" standards and patents or codecs and containers – the net result of Google's decision affected the entire ecosystem of video content creators, publishers, developers and advertisers and created an atmosphere of fear and loathing in online video.

February kicked off with big news within the online video platform market with KIT digital's triple-play OVP acquisition of New York City-based social media KickApps, Paris-based Kewego, and San Francisco-based Kyte, for approximately $77.2 million ($14.8 million in cash and approximately $62.3 million in stock. A few months earlier, I had spoke with Gannon Hall, (who at the time of this interview was COO of Kyte and is now Executive Vice President of Global Marketing for KIT digital), at the 2010 Online Video Platform Summit about Kyte's online and mobile video experience. I also spoke with Mike Sommers, then VP of Product Management for KickApps who discussed the growing importance of curation, specifically social video curation. As part of the acquisition KickApps' CEO Alex Blum, was appointed to the new position of global chief operating officer of KIT digital.

In other OVP news, Kaltura secured $20 Million investment to further disrupt the online video space, another OVP bit the dust with VBrick's acquisition of Fliqz, and Ooyala made a big move by scoring Yahoo! Japan.

I also caught up with Scot McLernon, Chief Revenue Officer at YuMe, at a San Francisco event to get an overview of two new studies YuMe had released, that demonstrate the changing attitudes of online video viewers and present a compelling case study for brands to shift advertising dollars from TV to online video for maximum campaign reach. In partnership with Frank N. Magid Associates and The Nielsen Company, the findings of the two reports “Online Video and Television Viewing Attitudes and Behaviors” and “Share-shift Analysis – TV + Online Video: The Best of Both Worlds” were presented at a series roadshows hosted by YuMe.

Travis Hockersmith, Director of Market Analytics for YuMe, talked about the key findings of the share-shift analysis that points out that when a viewer is exposed to a campaign across multiple screens, brand recall scores increase dramatically with multi-platform exposure and performance, from 62% for ads solely on TV to 82% for adds viewed on TV and online. Mike Vorhaus, President of Magid Advisors at consumer research firm Frank N. Magid Associates, said that the data shows that with online video, brands could reach viewers more easily, more often and with less expense than traditional TV.

Overall, online video viewing showed a dramatic rise becoming a major platform for entertainment while TV viewing is on the decline. YuMe believes that widespread adoption of online video for news and entertainment was brought on through the proliferation of connected devices. Online video viewing across all devices, from PCs to the iPad and smartphones, made it easy for viewers of all ages watch video content where they and wherever they wanted.

Editor's note: This ends Part 1 of Online Video in 2011: A Look Back. Stay tuned for Part 2.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

CES 2011 Surprise: Skype Acquires Qik for Live Video Mobile Streaming

In a surprise move that further consolidates Skype's position as the leader of the live video calling market, Skype CEO Tony Bates confirmed that his company has agreed to acquire Qik, the popular live mobile streaming startup. The announcement was made today at CES 2011, and transaction is expected to close in January 2011. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed but Silicon Alley Insider estimated the deal at about $100-150 million.

Skype made a number of other service improvements announcements, including: partnerships with Sony, Vizio and Panasonic and to build Skype into its HDTVs and Blu-ray players, partnerships with Verizon and OnStar to bring video its services, a Skype kit of APIs to allow OEMs to build on the Skype platform, and group video calling for $8.99 a month allowing multi-party video chat up to 10 parties.

Just last week Skype made our dreams come true by bringing video chat to the iPhone, it continues to broaden its reach with each partnership; and the acquisition of Qik rounds out its portfolio, and removes a popular competitor in the mobile video space. Among the list of competitors includes Apple's FaceTime, along with Google voice and video chat, Fring, ooVoo, Bambuser and several other live video mobile apps. As I previously noted, mobile video has been considered one of the biggest trends that will explode in 2011, and with the percentage of Skype calls taking place over video growing, Skype has clearly become the dominant player in the two-way video calling market. Skype filed for its IPO in mid-2010 and is expected later this year.

Skype CEO Tony Bates announced that this was Skype's first acquisition in this CES press conference and part of its strategy for premium video services. He also recorded a short video message for Skype blog.

skype on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

In the company press release, Bates added:

“The Qik team has delivered exceptional video experiences for its mobile partners and millions of end users across a range of devices. Skype’s software enables an estimated 25 percent of the world’s international long distance voice calling minutes , and approximately 40 percent of those Skype-to-Skype calls are happening over video. Qik’s deep engineering capabilities and strong mobile relationships will be an impressive complementary fit with Skype.”

The two companies have have a common purpose, as the press release stated:

"...of enriching communications and sharing with video, across any device. The acquisition of Qik helps accelerate Skype’s leadership in video by adding recording, sharing and storing capabilities to Skype’s product portfolio. Through this acquisition, Skype will also be able to leverage the engineering expertise that is behind Qik’s Smart Streaming™ technology, which optimizes video transmission over wireless networks."

For more on Bates' CES 2011 announcement, see this post by Adrian Pennington: Skype Adds Qik to Go Mobile Ahead of IPO - StreamingMedia.com. Also see these post by Sarah Reedy on why this deal matters: Light Reading Mobile - CES 2011: Skype Buys Up Qik for Mobile Push - Telecom News Analysis.

In this video, Qik Co-Founder and SVP of Product Bhaskar Roy shares an inside look at the Qik Story:

Vijay Tella, CEO of Qik said:

“Qik has worked very hard to solve complex problems that allow millions of people everyday to take advantage of sharing their lives with those people who are most important to them. Joining Skype allows Qik’s team to unite with Skype’s talented team to develop new and innovative products for our customers and partners.”

Qik was founded in 2006, and is headquartered in Redwood City, California with has an office in Moscow, Russia. The 60 employee company has built innovative solutions to capture and share video with anyone across mobile devices, the web, and desktop platforms. Videos can be recorded and streamed in real time or stored for later viewing. The popular Qik service is available to over 5 million users on over 200 mobile phones, including Android, iPhone, Symbian, Blackberry and Windows Mobile platforms, and comes pre-loaded on a wide variety of mobile handsets through partnerships with leading handset manufacturers and mobile networks.

Qik recently released its Andoird streaming app Interesting to note, earlier today TechCrunch reported that Qik quitely raised $6.3 million from Quest Venture Partners and Almaz Capital Partners.

So how big is the live video calling market?

In a report on USA Today, Jon Swartz noted:

"An estimated 13.2 million people worldwide will make video calls this year — up fourfold from last year. Some 155.1 million will perform such calls in 2015, predicts market researcher In-Stat. Military families and people separated by time zones, in particular, are taking advantage of the technology. "It is more enveloping for long-distance relationships," says Frank Dickson, a mobile analyst at In-Stat. He estimates the market for mobile-based video calls will eclipse $1 billion by 2015."

I've written frequently about Qik over the last few years and in my first Qik post from December 2007, It Looks Like the Revolution Will Be Televised, I noted that this would be the next new killer app – live video streaming from mobile to web. Robert Scoble and Steve Garfield were both Qik early adopters, and at that time, lifecasting and video blogging was coming into its own, and live mobile broadcasting created endless lifecasting possibilities that went way beyond the Dick Tracy wrist phone. Your cell phone can become a live broadcast channel. Now that mobile has become the next wave of our video communications, there's no doubt that the video revolution will not only be televised, but it will be two-way live video channel called Skype.

About Skype
Skype is a communications platform provider whose purpose is to break down barriers to communication. With an Internet-connected device, families, friends and colleagues can get together for free with messaging, voice and video. At low cost, they can also call landlines or mobiles virtually anywhere in the world. Skype has recently introduced group video, allowing groups of more than two people to do things together whenever they’re apart. Skype was founded in 2003 and is based in Luxembourg. Skype can be downloaded onto computers, mobile phones and other connected devices for free at www.skype.com. You can get news and updates from Skype on its blog: blogs.skype.com Twitter: twitter.com/skype or Facebook: www.facebook.com/skype.

About Qik
Qik is a leader in the mobile video space enabling smart phone users around the world to capture special and spontaneous life moments from anywhere and instantly share those moments with friends, family and followers. Qik’s comprehensive solution meets all consumer video needs including video calling, video sharing, video messaging and the ability to sync and save videos to the web and desktop. Qik has headquarters in Redwood City, California and an office in Moscow, Russia.

See these related Klessblog posts for more on Qik:

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Skype Makes Our Dreams Come True with Skype for iPhone 3.0, Video Chat Now Available!

After much waiting and anticipation, just like that – Skype for iPhone now comes with video. There had been rumors and sightings online about a possible release at CES next week, but Skype finally made our dreams come true with the release of Skype iPhone app. Skype has been no stranger to the news lately with an IPO next year and on the heels of its major outage – Skype "gave the people what they want," by enabling video chat chat capability across the Apple iDevice line, including the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and 4th generation iPod touch with i0S 4.0 or above. Like its previous iPhone apps, Skype for iPhone 3.0 is free.

Mobile video has been considered one of the biggest trends that will explode in 2011, and now Skype's impending dominance of the two-way video chat market is apparent. With its global and mainstream reach of approximately 25 million people signed into Skype at any given time, along with its recent integration with Facebook, Skype has become the biggest disruptor of the live video space. Ironically, among the list of competitors includes Apple's FaceTime, along with Google voice and video chat, Fring, ooVoo, Qik and other live video mobile apps.

Techcrunch's Leena Rao spoke with Rick Osterloh, VP of Consumer Products for Skype, who said that the company had been working on developing video capability in the app for some time and that Apple has been a "great partner" and that “mobile is going to be big for Skype."

In Skype's press release today, Neil Stevens, general manager of Skype’s consumer business said:

"With video calling representing approximately 40% of all Skype-to-Skype minutes for the first six months of 2010, our users have been eager to get Skype video calling on their mobile phones. By bringing video to mainstream users at their home or work via their desktops, on the go with their mobiles, or into their living room via their TV, Skype has made it possible for millions of people to share video moments wherever they are.”

With this new software, users will be able to:

Make free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls over 3G and WiFi.*
Share video calls on Skype with people on specified iPhones, PC or Mac.
Talk face-to-face or show what you're seeing with front- and rear-facing cameras.

* Additional data charges may apply. Skype recommends a strong WiFi connection for video calling to get the best quality.

Check out this bizarre Skype ad introducing the new iPhone app. (Friendly warning: Don't watch this if you are creeped out by guys dancing around their underwear, as evidence of the the video thumbnail. It seems that the producers wanted to show that you can "share the moment, anywhere.)

The application works in both portrait and landscape mode, but the downside with the iPhone 3GS and iPad is that neither have a front-facing camera, which makes it less ideal for video chat – but you can receive video on the iPad and chat with a compatible headset and use the rear-facing camera on the iPhone 3GS. However, that may change if the iPad2 comes equipped with a camera.

Your device will need to be running iOS 4.0 or above and that you are using Skype for iPhone 3.0 or above. The contacts you are calling must be using one of the following Skype clients:

Skype for Windows version 4.2 and above
Skype for Mac OS X version 2.8 and above
Skype for iPhone 3.0 and above

There are many hands-on reviews of the the app on Engadget, GigaOm, 9 to 5 Mac, TMCnet and others, and the reports are that the video quality is clear but not as clear as FaceTime. 9 to 5 Mac estimated that video calls over 3G will use around 3.4 MB of data per minute.

Skype has been growing steadily with 560 million users and 8.1 million of those users pay an average of $96 a year for premium services. Skype generated $13 million in profit on net revenues of $406 million in the first half of 2010. Skype's Android app doesn't yet support video calling, but Skype may have more releases set for CES and ooVoo just released their Android version.

Related:

About Skype
Skype is a communications platform provider whose purpose is to break down barriers to communication. With an Internet-connected device, families, friends and colleagues can get together for free with messaging, voice and video. At low cost, they can also call landlines or mobiles virtually anywhere in the world. Skype has recently introduced group video, allowing groups of more than two people to do things together whenever they're apart.

Founded in 2003 and based in Luxembourg. Skype can be downloaded onto computers, mobile phones and other connected devices for free at www.skype.com.

You can get news and updates from Skype on its blog: blogs.skype.com Twitter: twitter.com/skype or Facebook: www.facebook.com/skype.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Skype and Twitter "Do the CEO Shuffle"

The latest dance craze sweeping the tech world is, "Do the CEO Shuffle" with two notable and high profile positions being filled yesterday at Skype and Twitter. While this is not a new dance step, and actually it's quite well known in many industries, it's interesting that these two appointments fall on the same day. Both companies have enormous user bases and each are on a major roll.

So what it so interesting about Skype's new CEO announcement?

According to Erick Schonfeld who broke the news, Skype appointed Cisco SVP Tony Bates as CEO to replace Skype's current CEO Josh Silverman. Bates had been running Cisco's Enterprise, Commercial and Small Business Group, which accounted for 80 percent of Cisco's annual revenue worth $30 billion. Bates is the second Cisco executive to jump ship following Dr Jonathan Rosenberg who left Cisco last November to become Skype's CTO.

Schoenfeld said:

"The company recently filed to go public in August. And while there were rumors that a company like Cisco might buy it, adding a new CEO at this time points more strongly in the direction of an IPO. The earlier Cisco rumors now make sense. Cisco wasn’t trying to buy Skype. Rather, Skype was trying to hire the guy who runs most of Cisco."

In the press release Bates noted that Skype is both a powerful brand and global leader in Internet communications, and said:

"There are extraordinary opportunities ahead for Skype and I am eager to lead the company through this exciting juncture in its continuing transformation. I look forward to working with Skype’s management team and talented employees to engineer the next wave of game-changing products and services for our users.”

As Skype makes a serious move into the enterprise, and is on track to exceed $1 billion in revenues in 2011. Skype has over 560 million registered users and averages 124 million active users a month, but only 8.1 million of them actually pay for the service. Last week, Kara Swisher reported that Skype and Facebook are readying a deep integration partnership, that would include SMS, voice chat and Facebook Connect.

According to Om Malik:

"Bates’ hiring is indicative of three things:

Skype is dead serious about an initial public offering (IPO).

The company isn’t looking to sell out anytime soon.

Skype is about to make a deeper push into carrier and enterprise markets."

And what about Twitter's new CEO?

As Twitter CEO for the last two years, Evan Williams noted the amazing growth of Twitter from 3 million registered users when he took job to more than 165 million. He cited the success of his brainchild, the New Twitter, as the main reason he is stepping down as CEO. He's appointed Twitter's COO, Dick Costolo, to succeed him as Twitter’s CEO starting today, so that he can focus completely on product strategy.

Williams and Costolo have been friends for years, and actually have switched roles sometime back with Williams returning to his software development roots and Costolo working on business development, revenue and other campaigns. Costolo is a three-time CEO and most recently helped found Feedburner, which was sold to Google. Costolo will oversee Twitter's day-to-day business functions and further expansion.

According to Fred Wilson, a VC who is also on Twitter’s board, said it's a very smart and gutsy move Williams' part, and that Costolo was “more of a manager, more of an executive, more of a businessman” than Williams.

Read more here: Evan Williams of Twitter Steps Down as Chief - NYTimes.com

Related:

Friday, September 3, 2010

Skype Introduces 10-way Video Calls, But Is It Ready For Prime Time?

Yesterday Skype released an update to its popular video chat and VoIP client with a second beta of Skype 5.0 for Windows, that introduces group video calls with up to 10 people. The update works only on Windows and everyone on a group call now needs to be running this newer version, to join in group video calls. It was only a few months ago that Skype began to offer video calls up to 5 people. At that time, Skype admitted that this new feature was in beta and there might be a few rough edges, and that it might not work perfectly every time. With this new version, Skype says it has increased stability and better quality when making group video calls, along with a new sleeker look and feel to the user interface.

For now, Skype is offering 10-way video calling as a free trial, but it's likely to become a premium feature in the future. Skype competitor, ooVoo, also had multi-party video chat for up to 6 callers as a free service before moving to paid plans with tiered rates from 3 up to 6-way calls, and free a plan for 2-way calls only. Other premium features ooVoo has include video recording, screen sharing and 480p video quality and high quality audio which ooVoo says gives it an edge over Skype. Read this ooVoo review post for more on ooVoo.

While I haven't yet downloaded the Skype 5.0 for Windows update yet, or given it try, I'm still skeptical it could provide a quality user experience with that many video callers, especially through the public Internet where there's no QoS (Quality of Service.) In the videoconferencing world, you need a MCU (Multi-point Control Unit) to bridge all your video connections and dedicated network resources to support IP video calls.

My guess is that for Skype to work for 10-way calls you need to have at least a 3-5 MBps Internet connection and a PC with a Dual Core processor and at least 4 GB of RAM to handle that amount of live streaming data. Skype has been positioning itself for the enterprise and this new offering is really more of a business play than for consumers. Better to be behind a corporate firewall where you have more control at managing network traffic.

Life hacker recorded this demo and Whitson Gordon who wrote the accompanying blog post said to not expect great things.

Gordon shared the following in his post:

"We took the beta for a test run, to see if we could get more than five people running in a video chat. Once we got past about three of us, most everyone stopped outputting video, and the audio got pretty choppy. Overall, it wasn't the best...if everyone in the group has a powerful computer and a fast connection, you might be able to get it to work—as always, your mileage may vary, and it is still in beta—but it doesn't look like this is going to work very well for everyone. Check out the video above to see how it went for us."

There's still no word on Linux or Mac versions, although when Skype announced the five-way calling it said 'later this year' for a Mac version. But if you want Skype 5.0 for Windows download it now.

Related:

Monday, August 30, 2010

Oh Snap! Cisco Wants to Buy Skype Now Too? For Realz??

On the heels of Cisco's acquisition of Extend Media, rumor has it that the data-networking giant has made an offer to acquire Skype before the Internet telephony company makes an IPO, which they just announced on August 9. Mike Arrington reported the news this morning from reliable sources, and said that while TechCrunch has not been able to confirm this rumor, it's not surprising because companies, "in lock down during the IPO process, is usually even more tight lipped than normal." Arrington cited Skype insiders who valued the company at $5 billion or so.

Skype itself made a big announcement of its own today with the official launch of Skype Connect 1.0., the enterprise version of its VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephony service that had been in beta since March 2009. Skype Connect, connects Skype to IP-enabled private branch exchange (PBX) or Unified Communications (UC) systems, which are standard telecommunication infrastructures for voice calling across organizations. Skype Connect already has 2,400 active global users and is certified to work with PBX and UC products from many companies, including Cisco.

Skype has been growing steadily with 560 million users and 8.1 million of those users pay an average of $96 a year for premium services. Skype generated $13 million in profit on net revenues of $406 million in the first half of 2010.

If the TechCrunch rumor is true, adding Skype to its portfolio would give Cisco access to Skype's worldwide enterprise and consumer network, a popular brand with potential celebrity spokespeople (like Oprah), and would integrate with its unified communications suite of tools for web conferencing (WebEx), videoconferencing (Tandberg) and Telepresence for business customers. Cisco estimates that by 2014, video will comprise of 57% of Internet traffic company and sees the potential for a $30 billion video communications market.

The VAR Guy was thinking the same thing as I was in his post, Cisco Systems: Buying Skype for Low-End Video Conferencing? | The VAR Guy:

"So, why might Cisco be taking a look at Skype? The answer is simple: Web-based video conferencing.

At the very high end of the market, Cisco continues to promote telepresence executive conference rooms that can cost $200,000 or more per location to deploy. Gradually, Cisco has extended its telepresence strategy to the mid-market and to lower-end systems.

At the very low end of the market, Cisco acquired the Flip video camera. The goal: Make video incredibly easy to produce, so that consumers and businesses load up the web with even more video — driving even more demand for Cisco’s broadband networking solutions."

Garrett Smith of VoIP Insider, saw a lot of synergy between the two companies on a variety of levels, in his post, Skype Would Make Great Acquisition for Cisco, including target growth markets (small business in particular), technology dependent customers (noting a possible mashup of technologies, "Imagine a wireless Flip that allowed for mobile Skype video calling."), proprietary technology and consumer brand.

Another possible consumer play could be for video chat in the living room. Earlier this year at CES 2010, Skype announced a partnership with HDTV makers Panasonic and LG to bring its popular video chat software to the living room featuring an embedded version of Skype 4.2. Also at CES, Cisco demonstrated a home TelePresence system that it said would be rolling out trials this year, with Verizon in the U.S. and with France Telecom.

Bernie Arnason of Telecompetitor cited out other possible integrations of Skype with Cisco's IPTV and set-top boxes, Linksys routing equipment and numerous broadband products that could be Skype "certified".

Back in April 2008, I wrote about the rumor that Google might Buy Skype?, when eBay was getting ready to sell, but that ultimately did not happen. There was a great deal of speculation then like there has been today. But what about Google? There was some talk of Google making an offer, but backed away due to anti-trust concerns. Google actually added a new VoIP phone calling feature from Gmail last week, which already had video chat capability. According to Google, over one millions calls were placed within 24 hours of the launch. The service is free in the U.S. through 2010 and is 2 cents/min on international calls, and I have to say it's worked flawlessly every time I've used it. Clearly, Google has stepped into the ring to duke it out with Skype in the voice and video chat market.

Richi Jennings of Computerworld, collected a sampling of analysis from the IT and tech blogs that you can read here: Cisco to buy Skype, pre-IPO? (and lock out) and see the links below.

Related:

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Skype TV Debuts at CES 2010, Live Two-Way Videoconferencing Comes to the Living Room

It was announced today at CES 2010, that Internet telephony Skype has partnered with HDTV makers Panasonic and LG to bring its popular video chat software to the living room. Starting in the spring, Panasonic and LG's broadband-enabled HDTVs will feature an embedded version of Skype 4.2. Consumers will need a HDTV-ready webcam with an integrated microphone and a recommended 1 Mbps symmetrical bandwidth for 720p HD calls at 30fps.

Several companies will be showing the HDTV-ready webcams which also integrate onboard video encoding. FaceVision developed two versions, one with a microphone ($US99) and one without ($US69). In Store has two HD encoding webcams, the Freetalk HD Pro ($US120) and the Freetalk HD Pro Plus ($US140). Both Panasonic and LG will offer optional plug and play webcams that can pick up sound and video from couch distance. Panasonic will support Skype in its VT and G series HDTVs in the US and LG will embed Skype in 26 new LCD and plasma HDTVs. Both LG and Panasonic are expected to demonstrate the service this week at CES.

Skype collaborated with Trinity Convergence on the software development and integration of its VeriCall voice and video engine with the Skype embedded SDK into the partner HDTVs. Mark Felice, co-founder and vice president of business development, Trinity Convergence said,

"With more than 520 million registered users, making Skype video calling available through connected devices is a natural evolution in its drive to bring video communications to the masses. We look forward to seeing Skype video proliferate on a wide range of embedded devices."

Some of the features on the HDTVs will include:

Free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls to other Skype users
Calls to landline or mobile phones at Skype's low rates
The option to receive inbound calls via a user's online Skype number
Skype voicemail, if it is set up
Being invited to participate in voice conference calls with up to 24 other parties
Support for up to 720p HD video calls, depending on the availability of high-speed broadband and a HD webcam

Skype CEO Josh Silverman said,

"Skype has made video calling easy, free and accessible. Today, 34% of all Skype-to-Skype calls include video. In addition, the number one reason why Skype users enjoy video calling is because it makes them feel more connected to friends and family. This is very exciting for us. TVs are a logical and natural platform for video communications. TVs will no longer be just the center of people’s entertainment experience, but have the potential to be the center of people’s communications experience.”

The NY Times reported, the domestic TV market shipped 33.86 million units during 2009, which is up 17 percent from 2008. According to forecast by market research firm iSuppli Corp., worldwide sales of internet TVs are predicted to grow to 241.2 million by 2012. Th trends in growth were attributed to the expanding availability of HD content and the declining cost to process HD video streams.

While much of the news today has been focused on the Google Nexus One, I think that this news is much more interesting in that it changes television from a passive one-way viewing experience into a two-way live video conversation platform.

For more information, visit: Skype on your TV

For updates follow: Get Skype on your TV (skypeonyourtv) on Twitter

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

eBay Finally Sells Skype (at least 65%) to Private Investors

The inevitable finally happened and just as everyone in the technology space expected, eBay sold Skype to the highest bidder, well at least a 65% stake for $1.9B to a group of investors which was valued at $2.7B and that's a lot higher than some Wall Street analyst predicted. eBay had originally bought Skype for $3.1B in 2005 with plans to integrate in into an auction communications channel but that never came to fruition. I wrote several articles on the subject here and here as it had been speculated that Google would buy Skype. But Google backed out of the offer due to the current legal war with Skype's founders and if it's acquisition of On2 goes through Google would already own the video codec on which Skype's video compression algorithm is based which is bound to cause disruption. According to digital media verteran Peter Csathy, CEO and President of Sorenson Media and former CEO of Sightspeed a Skype competitor, that Skype should be afraid, very afraid, of Google's deal to buy On2.

In April 2009, eBay announced plans to separate Skype from the company, beginning with an IPO in 2010. The decision followed a year-long review of Skype within eBay’s portfolio. As it prepared for an IPO, the company said it would naturally consider bids for Skype that offered an attractive valuation.

There are numerous stories about this all over the web with many collected on Techmeme. Paidcontent.org put together Skype’s Troubled History With Ebay, in Links. Om Malik who has done extensive reporting on Skype says, "If you’re an eBay shareholder, it’s time for you to get mad about the sheer incompetency of the management." While On Techcrunch, Michael Arrington looked at the numbers and said eBay actually did Ok with Skype,

On the Skype blog, CEO and President Josh Silverman described the deal as a new chapter. He said:

"A small group of venture capital funds have agreed with eBay to acquire a majority stake in Skype. The group is led by Silver Lake Partners, joined by Index and Andreessen Horowitz Ventures. You may recognize some names – for example Danny Rimer and Mike Volpi (both at Index Ventures) who were some of the earliest Board members and supporters of Skype. The new investors will buy approximately 65% of Skype, with eBay continuing to own 35%, in a deal valuing Skype at $2.75 billion US. It means we’re back to being a fully independent company again, but with a new group of owners who believe passionately in our mission and in the ability of our team to deliver on it. I can’t wait."

In 2008, Skype generated $551M in revenues, a 44% increase compared to 2007. Total eBay Inc. revenues were $8.5BM. Registered Skype users reached 405 million by the end of 2008, a 47% increase from 2007. Skype is attracting hundreds of thousands of new users each week. Skype grew in popularity over the last year with mainstream audiences through news agencies using it connect with reporters in the field and Oprah evangelising Skype on her TV show and big 10-week web cast event "A New Earth" with Eckhart Tolle.

The one snag in all this the legal issues which Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have sued eBay over over the use of its P2P technology. which Om says may put the kibosh on Skype's IPO plans. Stay tuned for more on that as the saga unfolds.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Skype Comes to the iPhone, Voice and Text Chat App

By now you may have heard the big news eariler this week that Skype released Skype for iPhone which is an iPhone app that enables you to make free Skype-to-Skype calls from any WiFi zone. You can sign in to Skype via 3G, WiFi, GPRS or Edge and see who is online but calls only work on WiFi. iPod Touch equipped with a microphone can also take advantage of the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calling.

You can make free Skype-to-Skype calls and low cost calls to landlines and mobile phones – and participate in conference calls – from any WiFi zone. You can also IM all you want, and participate in group chats too, whenever you have network connectivity, whether it's WiFi, 3G, EDGE or GPRS.

The next version of iPhone 3.0 supports calls over 3G as this video demonstrates. Om Malik has been covering Skype on his blog for some time and his review of Skype for iPhone: Awesome. While there are a few issues that many say will be worked out in 3.0, Om says, "For those of you that use Skype on a daily basis and own an iPhone, this could very quickly become the simplest way to make long-distance calls. And I’m predicting a big upsurge in Skype as an “IM client” with this release. To Skype developers who worked on this product, I have two words: Great work!" Read Om's full post here as well as Phil Glockner's post Skype for iPhone: It's Real and It's Spectacular - ReadWriteWeb.

In less than two days after its release, Skype for iPhone was downloaded more than one million times – around six downloads every second. I downloaded the app on my iPhone and and easily logged into one of my Skype accounts and was making a VoIP call through my WiFi connection in minutes. All my contacts downloaded and I was able to see their status just I could on the Skype desktop client. I was able to text chat as well (without those fun emoticons) and the only thing really missing was video, which is not supported on the iPhone as of yet. The audio quality was very clear and while the latency of text chat was not real-time it was low.

Kurt Thywissen, lead engineer on the Skype for iPhone project, explains how the application works in this video.

Skype for iPhone
Uploaded by SkypeConversations

Skype is clearly the most mainstream video and VoIP application doing well financially generating $551 million in revenue last year reporting a profit each quarter for the past two years. Skype averages 350,000 new users a day making it the fastest growing internet company after just five year. Bernard Lunn noted on ReadWriteWeb that Skype May Be The Biggest Winner From The Web 2.0 Era and highlighted 10 reasons he says that Skype has a shot at becoming the largest player in what is now a $2 trillion market.

Goin' mobile, Keep me moving

On the Skype Blog Scott Durchslag outlined how Skype is "mobilizing" with a complete range of rich Skype software for mobile devices powered by every single one of the world’s six major mobile operating systems – Android, BlackBerry, iPhone OS, Java, Symbian and Windows Mobile.

Some of their mobile range includes:

You can read the full post here.

Skype rival JaJah had recently done this with the iPod touch turning it into an iPhone over WiFi with their white-label solution and many have recoginsed Nimbuzz as another VoIP alternative with their own iPhone app. Nimbuzz combines instant messaging, (geo) presence, and VoIP across popular communities across popular communities, including Skype, Windows Live Messenger (MSN), Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, GoogleTalk, AIM, and social networks including Facebook and MySpace. The free application is available on the mobile, PC and web, for instant messaging, location.

Regarding Skype's valuation Olga Kharif of BusinessWeek asked as the Internet phone service makes its iPhone debut, can mobile phones add enough value to fatten up eBay's lackluster division for sale? She said, "Wireless versions of Skype are only one facet of unit President Josh Silverman's plan to spur growth. The company plans eventually to launch its service everywhere users may log on to the Internet, including phones, televisions, cars, and their work PCs, says Chief Operating Officer Scott Durchslag, "I see [Skype] as a Ferrari that's only firing some of its cylinders."

Related:

Update: 4/5/09

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Video Chat Gets Updated, New Windows Versions of Skype and ooVoo are Released

New versions of the free videoconferencing clients are available now. The ever-popular and ubiquitous Skype announced an upgrade to its Windows version last week which followed the recent update to the Mac OS client with version 2.8 which introduced cool new features like screening sharing.

PC Magazine said, "As if to celebrate its fifth birthday, IP telephony service provider Skype recently achieved a milestone of 15 million concurrent users, meaning there are now 405 million skype users across the planet. This figure, they say, is growing by 380,000 every day."

Skype 4.0 - it's all yours - Skype Blogs

From the Skype blog, "For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, this should come as no surprise – the gold version of Skype 4.0 for Windows is now ready to download. It’s an exciting day at Skype – and not just because we’ve also just passed the 16 million online user milestone – as it marks the final stage in a process which has lasted over two years, and incorporated feedback from tens of thousands users like you.

I’m going to keep this brief, as much of the story of 4.0 has been covered in Peter’s previous posts, but even if you stop reading now, this is the bit to remember: the gold version of Skype 4.0 for Windows is now ready, so download it now and share it with your friends, family and colleagues. 4.0 also sports a radically overhauled user interface – a slicker, cleaner look with less clutter and easier-to-find core features. We’ve also included Compact View, which retains the structure of the Skype 3.8 interface for those of you who prefer to work that way."

I had both my mom and father-in-law each update their versions of Skype this past week and they saw noticeable improvement in the video quality and bandwidth management. The only issue we ran into was that when Skype installed the update it rewrote some of the audio settings which ended up disabling my mom's microphone. After about an hour of remote diagnosis of walking her through the various windows, tabs and settings we found the fix under Tools>Settings>Audio Settings>USB Camera Mic which had been changed from the previous version.

Here's more from that post with what's new and improved.

Improved video calling – A new built-in bandwidth manager ensures that you have the very best video calling experience possible, even on a low bandwidth connection. If you have a fast enough connection (recommended 400 Kb/s or higher) and a high quality webcam, Skype delivers up to 30-frames-per-second High Quality Video at full screen.
Calls and instant messages are easier to manage – video and voice calls, as well as instant messaging, are all easy to reach in a single window. The new Conversations tab makes it easy to hold multiple conversations at once, and to switch quickly between video and voice calls, instant messages and SMS. This is particularly beneficial for the power users among you.
Call quality is substantially improved thanks to a number of under-the-hood changes. Calls sound richer and clearer than ever thanks to support for Super Wideband Audio with compatible hardware. The bandwidth manager should ensure that you have crystal clear calls even when bandwidth is low.

ooVoo also updated their multi-party video char software client this week. On the ooVoo blog, Chief Marketing Officer Marty Walker announced the latest update to the Windows client, "A BIG day at ooVoo today as we just launched our new Version 2.0 which is a big leap forward for our product and the video chat/video conferencing category in general. The release continues our focus on high quality video and includes significant audio improvements. But what we’re all REALLY excited about at ooVoo is our “Call Me” link which lets ooVoo users make video calls with anyone they know, even if their friends/family/colleagues/social media friends haven’t downloaded ooVoo. All you have to do is send someone a link, they click on it, and in moments they can join your call in a web browser. How great is that? And it is the same outstanding ooVoo quality. ooVooer’s have a permanent “Call Me” link (like a phone number). Give it out, put it in your email signature (we’ll help you create a button for this), post it on your blog or personal web page and all anyone has to do is click on the link to ooVoo you.

What else is new? Users can now build their own Video Chat Rooms (very easily) and can embed these into their own social network pages or blog. Users want flexibility and the ability to be creative and we are doing our best to deliver what our users want. Lastly, we have published an API for developers to build their own applications with ooVoo. And as we learn more about what the development community wants in high quality video chats we will continue to rollout more API’s."

As David Pouge noted in his NY Times piece, Video Chats Overcome Clunkiness, it's been 45 years since the demonstration of the first video phone at the World's Fair but now years later it's part of our normal way to communicate with family, friends and business associates. Check out his article for more background on how video chat has grown up.

Is eBay Finally Putting Skype on the Auction Block?

There been a lot of speculation the last week about whether or not eBay is ready to cut its losses and sell off Skype to the highest bidder. I blogged about this last April in my post, Google to Buy Skype?, and now almost a year later in tougher economic times it seems that the rumors are more likely now. A number of stories were published last week including this one by Sarah Lacy on Yahoo Finance which she says, "Reports are surfacing that eBay may be quietly putting Skype on the for-sale or for-spin-off block. This is something analysts have hoped for for a long time, but has eBay missed the window by stubbornly insisting Skype was a fit with its core business? My guest Om Malik says that may be the case. He recently wrote about Skype’s slowing growth on his GigaOm blog. Click on the video to hear who Malik says might buy Skype, and why he says Henry Blodget is crazy to think the company would get $3 billion in this market."

In his blog post, Should eBay Spin Off Skype? The Debate Continues, Om says, "In my opinion, which I shared with Sarah Lacy and her viewers yesterday, Yahoo is a much better buyer for Skype as it has experience working with consumers and offering paid services. As for other likely buyers, I would put large telecom operators such as British Telecom and France Telecom high on the list. A reader points out that Hutchinson’s 3 could be a good buyer as well.

As far as I’m concerned, Skype isn’t as richly valued as analysts it is; I think it would be lucky to get three times its revenues. My best guess would be that they fetch between $900 million and $1.2 billion. Why? As I pointed out last week, Skype has some serious growth challenges. But don’t tell that to analysts, who measure everything with a hockey stick."