05/12/2006 11:07:00 PM 
(2) 
(2) We here at Influx are thoroughly impressed. Beyond congratulating the enterprising team, we wanted to try and figure out the secret to their success.
Well, big surprise, the key lies in the more than compelling price/performance model they are pitching... It's free, full stop.
No matter how long you use it, it's free. No matter how far away the person on the other end of the line is, it's free.
What?s the catch you say? Well, the other person needs Skype too.
But remember, it's free!
There is very little risk and the only real barriers to adoption would be concerns over the complexity of the technology and or the quality of the communications (sound quality, not whether it is boring to talk for free).
But, as you can see, word of mouth and peer-to-peer recommendation are powerful tools, especially for the increasingly savvy internet community. After all, this is a community tool and increasingly, a community builder.
So, what can we all learn from this?
Lesson One = The more you can give away, the more you will get back. I believe it was Peter Griffin, of Family Guy fame who said: "It doesn't matter if you're black or white. The only color that really matters is green."
Lesson Two = The three R's: Reputation and Recommendation Rule. In case you didn't notice, Skype is an eBay company.
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Skype is the Limit
I do agree. Simple Formula of Success: To Get..Give. As like Hotmail did years ago. This is the trend of "Word of Mouse"! Man.
Posted by Murtaza on 05/30/2006 11:15 PM
I do agree. Simple Formula of Success: To Get..Give. As like Hotmail did years ago. This is the trend of "Word of Mouse"! Man.
Posted by Murtaza on 05/30/2006 11:15 PM
It appears you don't have Flash installed.
The free skype to skype calling is great, but there are some additional features that make skype very compelling, namely SkypeIN and SkypeOUT. <br> <br>SkypeIN gives you a local phone number that that anyone with a regular phone can call, and you basically get charged about 2c per minute for the call. Apart from the local phone number you get voicemail, and even more compelling call forwarding. So even if your computer is shut down, anyone calling your skype number will be forwarded to any other number and again you pay about 2c a minute for the call, and the person dialing pays to call the local number. One of the really important things to understand is that skype will forward calls anywhere in the world and charge you about 2c a minute. Take my situation where I went to england for 2 weeks over christmass, I had my SkypeIN miami number forwarding to my parents house in the UK, any of my friends in the US that called my skype number were forwarded to the UK (obviously you have to be aware of time differences as the people calling in don't know they're being forwarded so they could call in the middle of the night. My one problem with skypeIN right now though is the sound volume is to low when someone is forwarded, but hopefully they can get that figured out. <br> <br>Oh, and SkypeOUT, well that just enables you to call any landline number anywhere for about 2c a minute. I pretty much use skype for all my outgoing calls and I probably spend $10 a month, if that, and that includes calling the UK a lot. <br> <br>you can see all the rates here: <br>http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/rates/all_rates.html <br> <br>cheers, <br> <br>Karl <br>