Ebay and Skype
I haven't commented on the Ebay acquisition of Skype, because I haven't given it a lot of thought - I don't follow Ebay at all. And while I use Skype, it's not something I depend on. Here's my first thought on it though: Why?
Ebay does one thing - internet auctions. Exactly how is that related to a telecom offshoot like Skype? This smells like the all too common "money was burning a hole in management's pocket" problem. I saw a lot of that (on a much smaller scale) at ParcPlace-Digitalk - management went on a buying spree, mostly because they could. I see no synergy here - it's a buy into a business that's going to require focus and investment (there's going to be a lot of interaction with regulatory groups in the medium term - 911 service, etc, etc). Will Ebay want to invest that level of management focus? How exactly does it benefit them?
Comments
Ebay + Skype = Commerce Enabling Conversations
[Peter William Lount] September 13, 2005 13:53:09.761
Many of the transactions that occur in our lives, if not the majority of them for most people, take place with voice conversations either in person or via the phone at the time of the purchase. Skype enables Ebay and PayPal to offer voice (and possibly video) conversations to further enable commerce over the Internet. It's potentially a big win for customers and many businesses based on the internet. With your PayPal account to buy things you also get a Skype account to talk with the company before you buy or for support afterwards. This makes it easy for customers to be enabled to speak with businesses that they buy from over the Internet. This is a huge win for "service oriented" Internet businesses. It also enables a wider range of business opportunities for many businesses. The key is the joining of voice and commerce in a way that people can access it as easy as they can with over the phone purchases. New mode: Ebay(PayPal)+Skype, old mode: voice + commerce. Imagine talking about some thing up for auction before buying it? If you learn more about it you might have more confidence about buying it.