There's something simple about Skype that I really like. They're about providing free (cheap when that's not possible) voice, chat and video communications. They're not doing it using open standards like SIP and it's not something that a lot of other players in the market aren't doing too. But they seemed to recognize early on that going after the market in Western Europe was the to amass users. It makes sense. Western Europe embraced the cell phone much faster than the US did because of their heavily regulated and expensive traditional phone services.
A group of companies including Skype today announced that their services will be available for a flat flee. This shouldn't surprise anyone as the the mobile industry is maturing, companies are consolidating. The service is becoming a commodity. And Skype comes into play because it's cheaper to use 3G (or WiFi) to get access to the Internet and route voice traffic over that rather than more traditional phone networks.
As much as I like Skype's approach to the market and their business, I still don't understand how they fit in with eBay. How do they fit in? Freely connecting sellers and buyers for cheap phone calls? Really? By that logic eBay should be buying a shipping company like FedEx or DHL. I'm still not sure what their vision is. Maybe what Meg Whitman just doesn't want to tell us they did it as a investment for the company. I can't blame her. Other than Warren Buffet Wall Street hasn't been kind to companies that try to act as both a company and an investment vehicle.
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