BigShinyThing

According to a report in Time, Skype - whose software allows users to make cheap phone calls over the Internet - has become extremely popular amongst young Asians - with 45,000 new Chinese users signing on each day. Apparently many of them are using the service to practice their English - by cold calling fellow Skypers in the US. The company, which currently has 66 million registered users in more than 200 countries, includes language preferences in every user’s profile and last year started offering a ‘Skype Me’ mode that encourages calls from strangers (or stalkers, depending on your outlook). Like SMS was for the mobile phone industry, the popularity of this application has somewhat surprised the company. “It’s an area that, frankly, surprised us. People are becoming voice pals instead of pen pals.”

Skype, which is now of course owned by eBay, is looking into providing translation services as a possibly pay feature in 2006. Last week it released a web 2.0 edition that enables users to plug in their webcams and make free video calls. With Skype doing so much to shrink the world. maybe it should change its name to BabelFish.