Still Waiting To See The Magical Synergies Of The eBay-Skype Merger
13th Nov 2006, 15:25 GMT
Plenty of folks were pretty damn skeptical when eBay bought Skype last year for somewhere between $2.6 billion and $4.1 billion (depending on various milestones). After all, none of official reasons given for the deal made that much sense. The company touted two main things. First, that since many Skype users were in China and many eBay users were in the US, it would somehow open up new markets for eBay by encouraging Chinese Skype users to use eBay. Why? That part was missing, and it hasn't helped much that China has threatened to ban Skype at times. The other big reason was that it would let eBay buyers and sellers chat with each other by voice -- but, again, this made little sense since neither side has seemed particularly interested in talking to each other. Now the International Herald Tribune has written up an article looking back at the Skype-eBay deal to see how it's gone. The article tries to be balanced, talking to some people who think it still doesn't make sense, and others who think it was a good deal -- but they offer up little to actually support that. The numbers they throw out are for "downloads," a number that pre-eBay Skype used to toss around for hype purposes, but which are effectively meaningless. The IHT falls into the trap, though, comparing the number of downloads to the total number of worldwide internet users -- never once questioning how many people may have downloaded the software multiple times, how many people downloaded the software and never used it, or how many people checked it out and then stopped using it. If downloads were all that mattered, Skype could just set up a program to keep downloading more copies. What matters is users -- and paying users -- and on that note it looks like Skype may be plateauing. Total voice calls actually dropped last quarter, and despite the number of downloads, if you log into Skype the number of other users listed being online hasn't really changed very much over the past year. In other words, we're still no closer to understanding what value eBay saw in Skype, and it's not clear that anyone at eBay really knows either.
Still Waiting To See The Magical Synergies Of The eBay-Skype Merger related news:
- More Skypers hit ESC button — GigaOM
- Hacking Skype In & Out — GigaOM
- Skype Releases Version 3.0 and Joins Google Pack as User Statistics Soar — SeekingAlpha Internet Stocks
- Utiliser Skype sans Skype ? — Actualites
- Skype Dialed Into Google Pack — WebProNews: Blog Combined Feed
- SyncVUE: Skype Powered Collaborative Video Editing — TechCrunch
- Calling Out Microsoft — washingtonpost.com - Personal Technology Reviews, News and Advice
- News: iSale adds eBay Express support — Macworld
- Tanla Mobile announces Skype tie-in — Digital Media Europe - digital media news from across Europe
- EC clears Nokia-Siemens Networks merger — Telecompaper Headlines
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