5 million online Skypers
Today, Jan 23 2006, was the first time when more than 5 million users in Skype were simultaneously online.
We got from 4 to 5 million in about 3 months. There's 5.066 million on that picture -- some people reported seeing as much as 5.072.
5 million people is:
* more than 3 times the number of people in Estonia
* about 13 times the people living in Tallinn where we are building Skype
* about a third of greater London area
* a quarter of New York metropolitan area
* 1/260th the population of China
5 million people together weigh about 350 thousand tons. It would take about 11 thousand Boeing 747 planes to carry them all in the passenger cabin, or just a bit over 1000 if you stacked everyone in the cargo section, where it probably wouldn't be too comfortable this way. (There was some nonsense here before where I mixed tons and kilograms.)
At any given moment, there are tens of thousands of free Skype-to-Skype calls that some of those 5 million people are engaged in. Put in the same room, that would be pretty loud. And if all those calls were paid, that would be a pretty big chunk of cash every second that now doesn't get spent. So please do us a favour -- take the cash that we've saved you, and go buy yourself some chocolate or whatever goodie you're up for, to help us celebrate today's 5 million.
cadfael-kr commented Monday, Jan 23
oh and guess what i did? i did buy choclate just 20 mins ago! *jummy*
awicker commented Monday, Jan 23
Congratulations!
Skype will surely continue to grow at this crazy pace...
For us, it has been a blessing: my wife was able to keep her job in Italy (with an occasional business trip "to the office") after we moved to Germany, because with Skype she can talk for free with her colleagues from her home office in the basement (hers is probably the 1st 100% "Skyped" company in the world). My daughter and wife can stay in contact with friends and family in Italy using Skypeout - making the transition less painful. And my mom and sister can call my Skypein number in the USA - the call gets forwarded to our home phone in Germany. So I don't feel bad about forgetting to call and loading my mom with the phone bill! I call a local German Skypein number and it gets forwarded to my sister's house in the USA (so I don't have to turn on the PC to call). And we now talk regularly with friends and relatives all over the world that before got a call (maybe) once a year.
All we need now is Skypein numbers in Mexico and Italy. Hope they will be available soon!
Keep up the great work!
tmaresch commented Monday, Jan 23
You'll get at least another 100 000 if you release Symbian version (especially UIQ and s60)
tinoue3 commented Monday, Jan 23
Fantastic!!
btw, would love to see SMS via skype out service enabled. been using competitor service for that purpose recently. tx
h377r1d3r commented Tuesday, Jan 24
Congratulations
I use skype to communicate with my girlfriend over in poland. Skye call goes for over 14800 km, one way, every day with less than a second lag, that is preety amazing.
rafael.menezes commented Tuesday, Jan 24
5 million? Wow. I guess a good bunch of them are totally unsatisfied, since they're probably linux users working with a bugged software for over 6 months.
When my friends ask of me about MSN, I have to shut-up and agree with them: Skype has not been doing anything better or worst than other companies. Perhaps worst, in linux.
By the way, why the f**k I keep coming here to show my sarcasm?
I'm outta here.