eBay buys Skype

[Steve]

What started as a rumour has now come true. eBay are paying £1.4bn to buy Skype. So, how can eBay and Skype users benefit from this purchase?

While eBay might gain some opportunities to do more for its customers by making it easy for them to talk to each other or be involved in the closing stages of auctions, he said, the attractions for Skype users were less clear.

At the moment, most people use Skype to make cheap and easy phone calls via their computer and a broadband link.

"Changing this success formula could have disastrous consequences for customer numbers, particularly given emerging alternatives such as MSN Messenger and Google Talk,"

BBC news has more.

[Xaneden]

Christ, I don't like the sounds of that.

[autopilot]

Knowing eBay they will get lots of people using it, and just when they get a monopoly - bang, up go the prices. Not good news if you ask me :/

[unreal]

Damn this sucks tbh, now we are going to see an influx of ad's and all sorts Think Yahoo Messenger

[Fossil]

I'm using the older version (5.6) of YM so don't get any ads.

eBay bought out Paypal, now they're trying to get 'everybody' to use paypal so they get even more revenue from fees.

Are they gonna integrate Skype onto eBay?

[0iD]

Only a matter of time before they do. Prolly develop their own portal integrating all 3 (ebay/paypal/skype) into one interface.

[Steve]

Like the BBC article says though, that might benefit eBay, but how does it benefit existing Skype users?

[0iD]

I can't see how it does tbh. Lt's face it, there is only one motivating factor here & that's revenue.

[Spud1]

Yeah i saw this on CNN this morning, 4billion$US its worth apparently (both cash and stocks being traded).

I see it as a great move on ebays part if they can pull it off, they may have paid WELL over the odds but well they can afford it. From what i heard they are planning to integrate it into their site, to enable buyers to talk to sellers directly from the auction page - rather than messing about with email or 'requesting their contact info from ebay'. Will make it much easier to contact sellers if people use it. It could also make ebay more money, and who can blame them for wanting to do that?

True I can't really see much benefit for skype users themselves but there are plenty of other viop options out there to choose from...google talk for one?

[DR]

Google talk tbh

[autopilot]

I could see the benifit of 'live' telephone auctions, like the real ones that have been going on for decades. But eBay, with all there money and resources, could have easily developed thier own propriatory system for the job. It's purely money, and Skype is the clear leaders at the moment. A good move for eBay's owners, i doubt there will be any real benifits for eBay users (accept maybe paying for the service with PayPal). Can't blame eBay, i bet loads of people would love to get thier hands on Skype. They will milk it for everything they can like they did with eBay, which is no almost getting pointless to use with all the new charges. It was purely greed, they were making billions already and a excellent service before the stupid charges. It would have made more sence from a business point of view for one of the teleco's like BT to get thier hands on it as Skype will cost them millions in lost revenue and they are craping themselves over VOIP.

I persoanlly thought i was a matter of time before they sold it. I read a great interview with the 2 Skype guys, they are incredible people and with all thier personal billions they are always looking for a new challange. They tend to view themselves as inventors rather than business people. They sell all thier projects after they get popular, like Kazaa.

[unreal]

Well the makers of Skype must be rolling in it, clever bums

[muddyfox470]

And skype was the best voice calling program out there IMHO

I dont like the sound of it at all!!!

Ian

[Wyoming]

From what i heard they are planning to integrate it into their site, to enable buyers to talk to sellers directly from the auction page - rather than messing about with email or 'requesting their contact info from ebay'. Will make it much easier to contact sellers if people use it.

But why use such a complex option for this? Why not just have a simple private chat room feature where buyers can set up a small room with sellers who are online. It would a simpler system and cheaper. I suppose that ebay knows what it is doing though and has researched all the available options. It just confuses me how they settled on Skype.

[Matt1eD]

Shudders..... this is not sounding good, just going to rake up fees.

[DR]

I don't think anyone can assume that.

One reason eBay bought it is that 50% of eBays customers are in north america - Skype is more of a global thing which gives eBay access to a lot more users.

It will end up fully integrated with eBay but a license agreement would have probably been a heck of a lot cheaper