The Web-calling outfit owned by eBay is offering free PC-to-phone calling in North America in order to hit growth targets
Using Skype's bargain-basement phone service just got even cheaper. Skype customers can now make calls from personal computers to landline or wireless phones within the U.S. and Canada for free, instead of the usual 2 cents a minute. But what comes as great news for consumers may be a sign Skype's growth is falling short of its parent's expectations. The Web calling company was acquired by auction giant eBay (EBAY) in October for $2.6 billion.
The new pricing scheme is aimed at stepping up growth of the North American user base and fending off increasingly vicious competition. At least one analyst speculates the move is an indication Skype is behind schedule in reaching targets outlined at the time of the eBay purchase.
Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis and other Skype owners and executives stand to get a windfall of about $1.5 billion if certain growth targets are met in the coming years. EBay hasn't specified what the goals are, but they center on sales, gross margin, gross profit, and the number of active users of Skype's service.
SATISIFED MANAGERS.
User growth may be 20% to 25% behind plan, according to estimates by Albert Lin, an analyst with American Technology Research. Although Skype's software has been downloaded more than 300 million times, many users have downloaded the application to multiple devices. As a result, Skype now only has some 40 million regular users, he estimates. Unless Zennstrom and Friis rev that number up to 100 million by yearend, they might have to forgo a chunk of their bonus, Lin says. Skype also could extend its free PC-to-phone calling offer to other areas, including Western Europe, he says.
Skype says it's pleased with growth and denies more price cuts are in the works.
"We are not planning on expanding the promotion," says Henry Gomez, general manager for Skype in North America. "We are very, very satisfied with the growth, it's been flying." 
That growth could come down to earth, though, as rivals Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft, and Google offer more free Web-calling services. AOL just announced a major redesign of its TotalTalk Web-calling service, providing users with free phone numbers and free incoming calls from regular phones. Skype charges nearly $13 for a three-month subscription to a comparable service.
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