As a part of their pending IPO process, Skype has updated their 2010 numbers in an SEC filing. Their IPO prospectus reveals some interesting details behind the peer-to-peer VoIP provider. They took in $860 million in total 2010 revenue, with much of that coming from 12.8 billion billable minutes of use.
Of course most of Skype’s traffic is not billable, accounting for 194 billion minutes of use.
Here are some other interesting insights into Skype’s 2010 numbers:
- Skype finished 2010 with 663 million registered users, up 189 million from 2009’s 474 million a year earlier, representing 40% growth in Skype users.
- Of their 663 million users, 145 million on average used Skype services on a per month basis.
- Paying customers in 2010 equaled 8.8 million per month, up 20% from 2009’s 7.3 million
- Skype saw annual ARPU of $97 per paying customer in 2010, which was down from $98 in 2009
- Skype realized a 2010 operating profit, or EBITDA, of $20.6 million on $860 million in revenue. Their net loss for 2010 was $6.9 million, down sharply from 2009’s net loss of $417 million
Imagine how rich we would be if the FCC had the courage to make Skype pay us access for their use of our public switched telephone network. They can't even make money with a free ride, how would they ever do it if there was a level playing field in communications?