Portugal’s Skype users have doubled in the last year, according to the head of media and publicity of Microsoft Portugal.
Although the representative, Miguel Albuquerque e Castro, declined to reveal what the exact numbers were for Portugal, he affirmed that Skype now has 300 million clients worldwide.
These revelations were made public last week at a time when the service was celebrating its 10-year anniversary.
He said that the service is mostly used in Portugal for video calls, work calls and long-distance communication with relatives, and gave the example of small and medium-sized enterprises, which “are able to conduct videoconferences efficiently at low cost” using Skype.
Most services on Skype are free, excluding calls made to a home or mobile number and videoconferences including more than two people.
The service relies mostly, however, on its advertisers because the number of paid subscriptions is quite low.
“In Portugal, Skype’s publicity has been rising because advertisers consider the brand to have great potential on computer and cell phones,” he said.
When questioned about the service’s future, he said the goal is to “integrate Skype into Microsoft’s services and tools.”
Created on August 29, 2003, Skype was purchased by the software company Microsoft in 2011.
