When Skype Enters the French Market...

Résumé du document

Over the years, technology has made an amazing progresses. The computer equipment rate gets higher everyday and Internet has become an essential tool. With the globalization phenomenon, professionals have invaded the web, in order to enlarge the offer and to respond to a growing demand. With the arrival of web 2.0, the internet users play a decisive role. Information is shared, social networks are created every day, consumers realised their own shopping at any time, the dematerialization is in process. A mass of services are now available on the Internet, with very competitive prices and can represent sometimes, substitute products. The best example is Skype. A new way to call for free over the internet connection called peer to peer Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol. In order to attract people, to become a real leader in this new market Skype has to develop a lot of new strategies. In every country, a phone brand has to study how to enter the market and analyze the consumers' expectations. How Skype can enter the French market? Who is the target? Which marketing strategy will be more efficient?

Extraits

[...] Both creators are visionary: Internet will become in the future, the only way to make calls. Nous espérons que le gens ne diront plus je t'appelle, mais je te Skype, Ce qu'on pourrait traduire par je t'appelle sans payer de coûts exorbitants à la minute et avec une meilleur qualité d'écoute supérieure à celle d'une ligne fixe explained Janus Friis, in an American interview. In order to establish its lf in the French market, Skype has to develop specific marketing strategies. [...]

[...] The New York Times remembers us that Skype is: - The most popular VoIP service in the world - Its revenue grows 25% year-on-year - June 2009: 480.5 million register users So, why EBay is selling a part of its shares? The VoIP technology is owned by a company called Joltid. "Joltid has alleged that Skype should not possess, use or modify certain software source code and that, by doing so, and by disclosing such code in certain U.S. patent cases pursuant to orders from U.S. courts, Skype has breached the license agreement," EBay representative said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in July. [...]

[...] The main problem is that only 10% use the charged services. Skype should find a way to seduce French customers and to fight against French competition. a. The French competition You can say that there are three kinds of competitors: (The Internet providers: As we said before, we can consider that Freebox, Livebox and many other represent a real danger for Skype in France. In fact, they propose a large offer of services, with very low prices which answer perfectly to customers' needs. [...]

[...] Moreover, the technology is evolving every day. Rapidity, Wi-Fi, complete offer, a large choice of information, 3G: Internet can be used from everywhere at any moment of the day. Europe Internet using Source : ComScore World Metrix[2] 2007, - Connexion domicile et travail As we can see on this table, the Internet utilization is still not the same in European countries. But, we can suppose that Germany, UK or even France have developed more quickly technologies and that in few years Italy or Spain figures should considerably increase. [...]

[...] On Skype website it is explained that ”Skype is software that enables the world's conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. Every day, people everywhere also use Skype to make low- cost calls to landlines and mobiles”. The technological specificities: The Peer to Peer VoIP technology (Skype system) Source: peer-to-peer.fr c. The products[6] ( Free services Instant messages (Fee Services: Skype source of income - “SkypeIn provides Skype users with traditional local phone number so non-Skype users can call them using mobiles and landlines. [...]