30 June 2007

Despite Skype now being well into its second year as a U.S.-based company, it has yet to capture the imagination of American consumers the way it has Europeans and Asians. But the company's vice president and general manager for North America, Don Albert, says Skype is still very much on a roll.

The company is not only making headway in his own patch, Albert says, it continues to foster the global grassroots Skype-for-business market, largely through its ecosystem of developer partners, and it continues to add new functionality to the software, including SkypeFind, a user-driven business directory introduced in March.

"The U.S. is something of a last frontier for Skype," he concedes. "Not that growth has slowed at all in those other markets. But North America is definitely behind in terms of consumer awareness and number of users."