Tech IT Easy

June 22, 2006

eBay eventually integrates with Skype for good

Filed under: Europe, Globalization, Telecommunications, USA, VoIP, eBay, user-generated content — Jeremy Fain @ 10:36 am

So there we are. eBay eventually issued a press release stating clearly how it was intending to make Skype fit in its universe (eBay + Paypal, and soon Fon?): buyers will be able to contact sellers through Skype when considering buying an expensive item (like jewels, a piece of Art, a car, a sockets company, etc.). This, according to eBay, should help close deals faster, enhancing trust and confidence in both parties´ abilities to pursue the transaction.

Though I cannot come up right now with a smarter idea to integrate eBay & Skype, I believe the move (to be probably extended to all items soon) is too easy to be value creative - especially for sellers. The whole point of eBay relies on its asynchronous properties: I can sell my books while sleeping! And I definitely don´t want to waste my time chatting with every single eBay user, or I´d rather go to the flea market and liquidate everything.

I´m all the more convinced that eBay purchased Skype - for a mere $bn 2.6, just to prevent someone else (Google? Yahoo? Microsoft?) from buying the Skype technology and voIP market share out. And such a way of playing with one´s shareholders money, to my mind, jeopardizes the executive team´s credibility.

4 Comments »

  1. The fact is that Ebay paid $bn 2.6 for a firm that merely has $M60 in yearly revenues. So either they see in it a fantastic tool that can boost sales and generate millions in revenues…or, as you said Jerem, they didn’t want someone else to buy it.
    With the first hypotesis, comes the question: how?
    With the second hypotesis comes the question: why?

    Anyway. Too many questions for this morning.

    Comment by Jedi — June 23, 2006 @ 11:27 am

  2. Dear Jedi,

    Your raise two extremely interesting questions I´ll make sure I think about in the coming days. Many thanks.

    And “May the force be with you”!

    Comment by Jeremy — June 23, 2006 @ 3:37 pm

  3. Even before the merge of skype and ebay, I have been using skype to close my transactions. So, eBay’s decision is a smart move. I will help many sellers and buyers communicate faster and smoother.

    Comment by Adeel Chowdhry — May 12, 2007 @ 10:32 am

  4. Adeel, what sort of products did you sell on eBay? I guess these were ‘committing’ goods like works of Art, jewels, etc. Not books or CDs.

    Comment by Jeremy Fain — May 13, 2007 @ 11:38 pm

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