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1 out of 4 U.S. Immigrant Smartphone Owners Use PC or Mobile Video Calling, According to New Survey from Rebtel

Stockholm, Sweden & San Francisco, USA – March 17, 2011 – Rebtel, the world’s second largest mobile VoIP company after Skype, today announced results from its latest study based on U.S. immigrant and first-generation consumer mobile usage and behavior. The results were based on 1,340 responses from immigrants residing in the United States, which represent a consumer segment of approximately 38 million consumers. According to the survey 24% of those who responded to owning a smartphone have used a video calling service on either their PC or mobile phone, representing approximately five million Americans.

According to survey respondents, the vast majority of them preferred Skype as their video application of choice, with approximately 47% of claiming it as the app they most use. Facetime and Yahoo! Messenger came in second and third place, representing nearly 14% of users, followed by Tango at 8%.

The Oprah effect?
Comparing male to female responses, Skype was an overwhelming favorite of among women with 74% claiming to use the application, whereas only 42% of men preferred Skype. Rebtel believes Skype may have benefitted from an Oprah-bump as the television show now integrates Skype into the show experience for live interviews.

Here’s a breakdown of the different sex percentages:

Males:
Skype 42%
Facetime 15%
Yahoo! Messenger 14%
Tango 9%
Other 20%

Females:
Skype 74%
Facetime 7%
Yahoo! Messenger 13%
Tango 3%
Other 3%

In terms of whether those polled would be willing to pay a monthly fee to make video calls, 21% answered yes, with 79% saying they would not be willing to pay a fee. Men were approximately 1.5x as likely to pay a fee than women, with 22% of males and only 14% of females claiming they would be willing to do so.

Out of the immigrants in the study hailing from Cuba, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, India, Israel, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines and UK currently residing in the US, all segments ranked Skype as their preferred video calling application of choice.

“Skype is the clear leader when it comes it comes to the preferred method of how U.S. immigrant and first generation Americans choose to make video calls,” said Andreas Bernstrom, CEO of Rebtel. “Facetime, and Yahoo! Messenger not only have some serious catching up to do, but they’ll have to be much more aggressive if they truly want to distance themselves from other competing services like Tango, which appear to be closing ground quickly.”

According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, there are 37.9 million immigrants (both legal and illegal) in the U.S. 10.8 million of those are illegal. The study was conducted in November 2010 with a sample group of respondents comprised of Rebtel users divided into 11 different ethnic groups; Cuba, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, India, Israel, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines and UK. Each ethnic group received their own identical survey and all the respondents are currently located in the US.

By: Alex Drewniak, March 18th, 2011 Tags: facetime, rebtel, skype, tango, video calling, yahoo messenger

Rebtel Reaches 10 Million Users During Record-Breaking Twelve Months

Stockholm, Sweden – March 9th 2011 – Rebtel, the world’s second largest mobile VoIP company after Skype, today announces it has surpassed 10 million users worldwide. This profitable start-up has had a record breaking twelve months and increased revenues by more than 120% to $40 million in 2010. Rebtel’s figures show it is currently growing five times faster than Skype and plans to continue this trend by almost doubling its revenue to $75 million by the end of 2011 with a current run-rate of $55 million.

Rebtel has made significant strides since its inception in 2006 with over 1 billion minutes of international calls logged and a total of 200 million calls connected. The company attributes its success to its commitment to the customer and its dedication to innovation. Ten new hires were recently made in the research and engineering team to strengthen Rebtel’s mobile application credentials and deliver free and cheap international calls through iPhone, Blackberry and Android applications.

These award-winning mobile offerings have helped Rebtel to cement consumer loyalty, double its customer base in 2010, and achieve an all time high on its customer satisfaction survey in February 2011 with 98% of users stating they would recommend Rebtel to a friend. Rebtel’s word of mouth recommendations are an integral part of its growth, as it drives registrations and accounts for 65% of new user registrations.

Rapid expansion into Africa, Asia and the Middle East has also contributed to the increase in customer base. Free international calls to mobiles were enabled in Algeria, Bahrain and Jordan and rates have been lowered to Egypt and the above countries (please click here for further information on reduced rates).

Alexander Michael, Principal Analyst at Frost and Sullivan, comments: “We nominated Rebtel for our emerging company of the year award as we are impressed by its revenue figures, high growth rate and quality of service. I have long been a Rebtel user because it is easy to use and I can rely on it to connect me with my family and friends abroad. Rebtel has a strong brand with a loyal user base and is definitely one to watch this year.”

Andreas Bernström, CEO at Rebtel, says: “These are fantastic results, which confirm Rebtel is a serious player in the mobile VoIP market. We are thrilled to be growing at such a rate and plan to keep up this pace for the rest of 2011 and beyond. We have a detailed plan of action for the coming months and will be releasing more innovative and viral applications that help us deliver high quality and low cost international calls for the consumer market.”

For further information about how Rebtel works on feature phones and smartphones, please click here.

By: Alex Drewniak, March 14th, 2011 Tags: Alexander Michael, andreas bernstrom, Frost and Sullivan, rebtel, skype