Daiwa EuroTelcoblog No. 82: Monday, 25th October, 2004 - Skype and TOM.com partner in China

Chinese portal TOM.com yesterday announced that it will be launching a co-branded version of Skype imminently (Chinese - http://tech.tom.com/1121/1794/20041024-133551.html, English http://ir.tom.com/en/news_20041024.html). As we noted recently, Skype's only other co-branded venture, with PCHome in Taiwan, seems to have been instrumental in taking Taiwan to the No. 2 spot globally in terms of Skype users (9.2% of total). China's broadband user base is over five times greater than that of Taiwan (c.4m), so a similar level of uptake there would move China decisively to the top of the Skype user league table.

It is interesting to now see a confirmed Asian focus in Skype's choice of ISP/portal partners, and even more interesting to note that after the US and China, the two largest broadband users bases are in Japan (12.8m subs), which ranks only 12th in terms of users, and South Korea (11.7m subs), which doesn't even appear in the top 20 (reproduced again below). We now fully expect those markets to be included in this co-branding push, and wonder what the scope for an Indian partnership might be over time. We may be about to witness a step-change in Skype adoption and usage.

Top 20 Skype user countries

[1] United States - 10.33%
[2] Taiwan - 9.24%
[3] Poland - 8.78%
[4] Brazil - 7.24%
[5] Germany - 6.18%
[6] China - 5.89%
[7] France - 5.53%
[8] Netherlands - 3.50%
[9] Denmark - 3.07%
[10] United Kingdom - 2.94%
[11] Israel - 2.94%
[12] Japan - 2.61%
[13] Canada - 2.46%
[14] Belgium - 2.10%
[15] Spain - 1.82%
[16] Sweden - 1.76%
[17] Australia - 1.46%
[18] Italy - 1.44%
[19] Switzerland - 1.22%
[20] Mexico - 1.07%
Source: Skype