General Manager of Skype came from Estonia

Sten Tamkivi, General Manager of Skype eCommerce activities, came to Japan from Estonia. To hear feedback from bloggers, the event was held. And I was invited to this event.

He is nice friendly person. After toast, there was presentation about recent Skype.

Recording it from a camcorder, I wrap up them roughly.

Skype already surpass the day of only voice. It can use file transfer and so on now.

Skype has 430 million users. Mr.Sten is from Tallinn. Everyday skype user increases 400 thousand people. That is an equal number of its population, though correct population is 420 thousand people.

One fourth of Skype call covers video call on an average now. In holiday season it increases more. Video is not used for geek, but everyone can use it now.

Until now 10 billion minutes were used for Skype to Skype communication. If characters in ice age continue to speak from that age, they have to keep on speaking in 10 thousand year. In other words, this is very great number.

Skype covers 8 % of international phone, though Skype is not carrier.

It is clear that most of Skype users use it for business and so it becomes very important for business use.

When I travel around the world, I say my company achieved a great success in Internet. But then everyone asks me "Is your company American company?"

Skype was borned in Europe. From the beginning, there are various languages. Currently we support more than 30 languages. There are many software coming from U.S.A and ended up only publishing English version. But Skype supports other language. This is very big achievement.

Until now, communication was based on line. Depending on places, the way of communication is different.

One company used to provide all communication, but it is substituted for application. Whenever, wherever you are, you can communicate in various platforms.

What Skype thinks and belive the world will become like this; At office, Conference call starts on PC. But he has to go out for meeting urgently.　Using mobile phone, he can continute conversation seamlessly.

Futhermore, he can keep conversation in a car. At home, he can keep conversation by video call on refrigerator. It is funny, but you can keep conversation on skype during taking a shower

Skype envisions a future that communication flows like water.

Now, application is application, but we target for platforms. Based on the platforms, the time will come for applications for that platforms

Some people say we are telecom company. It is totally wrong. Without telecom company, we would not be in operation. We think we work together with telecom companies for mutual harmony and benefit.

As I showed pics of mobile, if we think about it, it is very unnatural to speak with headset using PC. Why did this usage make a success? Because it was convenient and low price.

As you might know, most communication is coverd by mobile phone. We want to keep on developing for mobile phone. And mobile phone is very important market in Japan,too.

Recent best success is Skype for iPhone release. 1 million copies were downloaded in first 36hours. After that, Skype for iPhone is 1st rank of dowloaded numbers in 40 countries. Now, 10 % of iPhone/iPod touch users in the world downloaded Skype and use it.

Personally, I think iPod touch is cooler than iPhone. iPod Touch user bought for video player and music player can talk friends and family in the world just after downloading the application.

It is same to PSP. The user bought for the game machine can use a way of commucantion suddenly after downloading Skype.

Q&A from here.

Q：If it is Apple, there is a prominent cheif like Steve Jobs. In case of Skype, who makes a policy?

A：At the start-up of Skype, product development is decided by Niklas and Janus. Even in about 200 staffs-size company, product development was chanaged by just Niklas' saying.

Now, there are 600 staffs in Skype and 8 offices in the world. We do operation in three domains. Consumer, business, mobile. Each unit has their own decision on each product development.

Usually small team produces good thing for their own mission. Jeffrey Bezos(Amazon) says appropriate number of members are a team with two pizzas for feed.

Skype staffs work in such a small team for their mission, but there are Skype Works for a project. Other than staff related to current project, he hand out it if if he thinks it is cool.

If it is a good idea for business, a team is organized to develop prototype for 90days at maximum.

Q： Are illustration and design of Skype are drawed by one staff ?

A：Inhouse, there are big design team（20-30staffs）. To get various kinds of idea, we use outiside staff. In fact, current design is done by external staffs.

Guideline has three importantnace. Synergy must be exisited among usiing marketing, usuing online and using on proudct

Q: Is there any progress on rapid drain on battery ?

A：We test it before its release. To keep batter power for one day is maximum. In case of iPhone 3.0, Push notification can be used. Without boot, you can use Skype. so it will probably reduce the drain on battery power

Q：We can not create new Open chat. Does it come back or ended ?

A：Same concept applied to Skype Cast. If it was voice, text could not be used. If it was text, phone could not be used. That made users confused, so we removed it for good arrangement.

But we never forget it and remember this needs. If we find a good way to get it back, it is possible for its comeback.

Q：Why is maximum number of group-chat member increased ?

A：Inhouse-support-chat member exceeds 100. That why we might have increased it.

Q：When can three people use video call at the sametime ?

A：I can not say when. It is same as voice when we first started P2P verbal communication. We can not show it until we are proud of its release. We are trying to fix it. And we are going to develop it.

At last, we saw a head office of Skype in Estonia.

Uploaded other pics for Skype blogger event - a set on Flickr. If you are interested in pics, pls see them.

He introduced one interesting episode.

Plushie is sitting at the back. It is a squirrel. This is secret emoticon of Skype.

Actual stuff is here.

If you enter (heidy), it appears. Is there anyone wondering why it is heidy?

Heidy is her.

This is heidy.

She is a receptionist. Her baby was born. She is a kind of mother of Skype staff. Thats why this emotion is named as her name.

There are three staffs including heidy whose name was used for emoticon. It is a funny episode.

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Video call is highlighed on his presentation, I suppose. How much rate of usage in Japan ???

If my family or acquaintances live in distant place, I surely use it. But I have rarely used it in my daily life.

Conversely, Group chat is poplular among my acquaintances. During log-off, it saves logs. It is best appeal.

From iPhone, I can use Skype. Personally, text chat is more attractive than video call.

but it is only applied to some heavey user like me. I appreciate if if Skype staff keep it in their mind.

I am looking forward to push notification for "iPhone 3.0"

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After attending this event like this, I feel very close to a company. Moreover I can connect to Mr.Stein by Skype now. so I will tell him my entry.

Translated by Toshi; orinal post on 5/15