Malthe Sigurdsson

Malthe Sigurdsson, The Skype brand (program):

• What is the Skype thing? An application you use to talk through the internet. For Free. Forever.
• It raises the barrier of entry for our competitors. It raises the barrier of exit for the users.
• It’s about enhancing communications
• A small, big company. 160 people in 15 countries.
• Users in every country recognized by the United Nations.
• Forbilleder: Apple, ebay, Google, wikipedia.
• All employees have access to the skype-wiki, which contains all the information used in the company.
• Where are we now? 3 mill. people online as we speak | 45 million registered users | 10 billion minutes served.
• Davidthemarine: ‘We’re the users, so we dictate how in the end this program is gonna go. Skype is as much our product as it is theirs. We don’t develop it but we’re the userbase. We’re the customer‘.
• The brand is the product is the brand.
• Malthes focus: providing free services.
• Do simple things really well.
• No knee-jerk reactions.
• Release all the time – unconnected to PR-stunts or events.
• Open up. We want to be friendly, down to earth, listening to the users. Users can say anything on the forums.
• Skype API: others can develop on the functionality.
• The Skype weblog
• Viral features.