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Although eBay, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: EBAY) Skype internet telephone service has has quite a bit of bad press lately, the service is what I would call indispensable to millions of customers who use it every day (myself included). There are reportedly over 250 million registered users of the service, and I regularly see seven to 10 million customers online at any given time. Why, then, isn't the company doing well for eBay?It is, in all reality. The fact is that eBay overpaid handsomely for the company in the first place, which is now showing up as ROI pressure just a tad over two years after eBay gobbled up the service. So, what can help Skype prove its worth more than just offering Voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephone calling over all those millions of PCs? Try voice calling over mobile handsets.
It makes complete sense for wireless telecom carriers to feel very threatened by Skype, as it should. After all, voice minutes -- and the more lucrative data usage -- is what keeps the bankrolls full for all wireless carriers. If an application was to be used on any carrier's handset that would bypass voice minutes and allow for voice conversations using data methods, this is where the threat lies. Have an unlimited amount of data usage on that Windows Mobile phone? If so, why pay for voice minutes when you can use Skype for free? There lies the conundrum.
It's true what Skype says -- its users aren't always at a computer. More and more, this is true. The "computer" many of us have at all times is the advanced wireless cellphone, though. This fact makes it hard for Skype executives to ignore the mobile market, even with what could be intense opposition from threatened wireless carriers in the near future. If Skype succeeds on the mobile frontier, it has to find a combination for that success that will work with handsets and carriers from almost all global wireless service companies. Talk about a huge challenge.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-11-2008 @ 3:12PM
Gumby said...
Ms Whitman went to bed with Mr Skype and are so infatuated with him that she bought Skype for billions so to stay in bed with Mr Skype..
1-11-2008 @ 4:26PM
skwidboy said...
The Kurkow kurse has struck again! First the San Francisco Giants- now this!!
1-13-2008 @ 1:13PM
Shimone said...
(sigh)
a total waste of an article - c'mon Brian White - do some basic research before you write an article with a thesis of: "it (Skype) has to find a combination for that success that will work with handsets and carriers from almost all global wireless service companies."
click this:
http://www.skype.com/mobile/
I can use my mobile to use Skype anywhere in the USA.
1-15-2008 @ 2:37AM
Richard Wicks said...
Although I used to love skype, once I paid for it, and they screwed around with it a ton, and eventually screwed it up so much that the microphone volume stayed horrendously low for 2 months, I gave up on them and cancelled my pay service.
They have no customer service, you're stuck using a VOLUNTEER message forum for help, and it can't replace a cell phone anyhow. I think they have a long way to go before they actually threaten established carriers. Does anybody really use 500 minutes a month during business hours?
I grew to totally hate them, but given how poorly they've managed PayPal, I should have expected it. EBay has had the reverse Midas Touch for a long time now. I really don't know how eBay can screw up everything so well. Skype was great when they were still an independant company. Still, Skype is still leaps and bounds ahead of Wengophone I have to admit.