If you have followed Microsoft through the ages (well its four decades of existence), you may well be aware just how much the company likes to throw around statistics and numbers to brag about its products and services.
While this tradition has waned a bit in recent times, the flame still burns. Redmond still likes to talk about usage statistics and market share — when it can, that is.
As far as Skype is concerned, Microsoft uses almost every single occasion to boast about the service. Which is unsurprising, really, as Skype is undoubtedly the number one VoIP platform in the world.
Just how big? It is now being used to talk more than 2 billion minutes over the Internet every single day.
Microsoft just released a statement, thanking users in helping achieve this milestone:
“2 billion minutes is more than 33 million hours of people singing, laughing, joking and staying in touch. That means 1,388,000 days of togetherness which make up more than 3,805 years of sharing or nearly 38 centuries of time spent on Skype in one day.”
Impressive statistics, any way you look at them.
What is even more imposing is the fact that all this is set to exponentially grow in the near future as more and more users join the connected world. And through it all Skype is set to play a key role in Microsoft’s long term strategy.
Microsoft is not just set to retire Windows Live Messenger and move all the users over to Skype, but the VoIP platform will soon see increasing business usage as well as it takes center stage in Redmond’s outlook for the future.
Some purists may decry Microsoft splashing cash to purchase competing solution (instead of developing new ones in-house), but there is little doubting that acquiring Skype has been a masterstroke.
