Is Skype paying off for eBay? Nope -- and it's not even close. Many eBay shareholders have been quite miffed that eBay even bought Skype for the billion-dollar fortune it paid with little or no future projections on when the company would consistently make money. Those fears are being raised yet again.

Although eBay and Skype are two well-known Internet properties, the concern over whether eBay has really harnessed the power of Skype is a heavy question on the street these days. Indeed, for a leading auction company which wanted to integrate voice communication into its auctions, it's hard to find an auction on eBay these days where Skype is anywhere to be found as an integral part of the process -- except for Skype ads on auction pages. Lame.

It's good to see that other big movers in the Internet space are muscling into eBay's turf, as competition always brings out the best in every industry -- while non-competition brings out the worst. Laura Martin from Media Metrics said that "strategic questions remain about Skype ...it's still unclear how it benefits the core eBay platform. And monetization [on eBay's investment] has been slower to occur than we had hoped."

What do you think? Will Skype benefit eBay in the near future, or was this an investment and buyout that will have sunk into the pit of worthless purchases for the online auction giant?