It's become commonplace in my Toronto house to set my one-year-old son in front of the web camera and give my parents in PEI a call. For families living apart and for those travelling afar, a service that lets you video chat for free is extremely useful.
The popular tool of choice is Skype, a cross-platform download that makes it easy to make Skype-to-Skype voice or video calls to anyone anywhere in the world. While these calls have primarily been between two end users, the company just announced a new update to their Windows software that allows group video calls with up to 10 people (everyone needs to be running Skype 5.0 to make this work).
This is a welcome feature for friends and families, but it also opens up some great business opportunities. As companies try to reduce travel costs, this type of accessible software gives them a chance to get as close to face-to-face meetings as possible without stepping on a plane. Moreover, many schools are starting to use Skype to expose classrooms to guest lecturers and fellow students from around the globe, so something like this could also contribute to new learning opportunities.
While Skype isn't the first business to launch multi-person video chats, their existing software is by far the most popular, with an average of 23 million users online at peak times. According to Skype.com, almost 40 per cent of their Skype-to-Skype calls are video calls. The company has been on the cutting edge of voice over Internet-protocol (VOiP) since it launched in 2003. In 2005, Skype made history when eBay Inc. bought it for a whopping $2.6-billion (U.S.). In November 2008, eBay sold 70 per cent of the company back to the original founders and other private investors, and in August of this year they filed for an IPO.
With such widespread penetration, with customers who pay for enhanced services such as calling landlines, and those you use the tool for free, this new 10-way calling feature is bound to excite personal and professional users. It also takes a bite out of the buzz Gmail's new voice-calling service has garnered. The Gmail service lets you make free calls from your account, but no multi-person video-calling features just yet.
Skype 5.0 for Windows is available now for free, but the company plans to eventually charge a fee for 10-way video calls.