Live from Stockholm

Now in the morning session of VON in Stockholm, with Niklas Zennstrom on stage. He has just given some user stats: US 6m registered users, UK 3m, Germany 5m, China 13m. He has noted the relatively low penetration levels that these represent. In contrast, he has pointed out that Finland, with 700k users, is at roughly 20% penetration of the online population. He has claimed that 1/3 of Skype users are business users. He opened with a very cool commercial from the US showing a rapper from Brooklyn collaborating with other artists around the world - the message was about communities of interest, a theme which has permeated Niklas' talk. He also related a very interesting anecdote about Oxford University shutting down access to Skype, after which Skype proactively approached the IT department there and eased their concerns over security, after which access was restored.