While Facebook, Twitter and Google may be dominate the headlines, Skype has quietly been going about its business.

Last week the Internet phone service announced it had passed 45 million concurrent users, a massive increase of 70 per cent since the start of 2012.

Dialling for dollars

While nine year old Skype may seem venerable in online terms, these figures indicate voice and video calling rivals such as Google+ Hangouts have a long way to catch up.

According to Tech Crunch, Skype added 3 million active concurrent users in a single month, its fastest ever acquisition rate. Tech Crunch also reported that Skype has seen an average 8 per cent month-on-month increase in its active users – its fastest ever rate.

Calling the shots

Skype was been acquired twice, first by eBay in 2005 for US $2.6 billion and in 2011 by Microsoft for US $8.6 billion.

Since Microsoft took over it has began efforts to monetise the service.

Earlier this year Skype debuted Conversation Ads, which displays advertisments during audio calls, while Skype in the Workspace, a service for SME's, is due to roll out in beta later this year. 

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