eBay and Skype: all the hype, no fuss

Techblogs exploded today with what might be called the deal of the day (yes day, with the current pace of buys, sells and computer geek star recruitment, the IT world is changing literally in a daily basis), but still the question remains: WHY?

Why did eBay bought Skype? What will they do? How can they profit?

Well, in my stupid opinion, if anyone wants to “buy it”, we’ll have to look at this deal as “Let’s buy it before Microsoft does” or “Skype is better than Google Talk, so let’s buy it”. These are stupid, yes, but it has some logic. At this time, we have four variables in the IT Universe that might change the “balance”: Apple, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo. And now eBay wants to play big.

• One – eBay has PayPal, a formidable service that’s used for more that auction payments. PayPal might be considered a pseudo bank, and who owns a bank controls the “money flow”.
• Two – eBay has Skype, a well established VoIP network infrastructure that’s growing every day. VoIP is the future of voice communications, no doubt, it’s prices are much more affordable than regular and mobile phone calls, so there’s competition and profit here, even more when Skype Video is released.
• Three – eBay is… a auction / trading company, living of transaction fees… this is the piece of the puzzle that doesn’t fit. For now, eBay is not using Skype for site support calls with operators. It might prove to be useful in the future, to outsource or even license the technology, or just like they did with Paypal. Imagine a mega site that can operate as a Support Call Center for commercial websites. In the future, yes, but not for now.

PayPal will be used to buy more Skype Credits, that’s for sure, but this would mean nothing to eBay, other that a fem millions more using PayPal.

In my true opinion, Skype won’t be used / merged with eBay. I think we’ll be seeing eBay investing in more Skype In/Out infrastructures and creating new services, as Skype Video, to create some income. Videocalls is something that telecommunication companies still can’t provide at a low cost. Either way, it’s that or selling it to one of the four variables.

Now… eBay buying Amazon, that would be something…

[tags]eBay, Skype, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Talk, VoIP[/tags]