MG on Skype/eBay
That Martin Geddes is too smart for his own good. His take on Skype/eBay sums it up very, very well, concluding:
I suspect that eBay’s ambition is to become the mediator of 800-number style interactions between consumers and merchants. The www.ebay.com web site is their text distribution channel, and Skype is the audio one. Each will have different sets of merchants, buyers and transaction structures. So don’t look for “eBay” functionality to appear in Skype, because they’re addressing strategically similar but functionally different needs.
Hmm...."the mediator of 800-number style interactions between consumers and merchants" = Pay-Per-Call. Right on, Martin.
But he might have missed something here:
One last thought. If you’re a telco, now is a great time to cross your chest and start saying your Hail Marys. Someone with deep pockets is about to give away telephony to support their adjacent transaction business.
The telcos already have a defence for this: they are about to give away telephony to support their adjacent access business.
I like to call it the telco "Scorched Earth" strategy (see here and here). It won't be pretty, but at least some telcos will walk away from this fight alive and reinvented as pure access providers (the dreaded Dumb Pipe Destiny!).
The internet players are deflating voice to support their applications-layer businesses in commerce, content, and advertising; the telcos are deflating voice to support their growing broadband access business.
The losers in this will be folks who only make money selling voice. Top of mind in this category is Vonage, SunRocket, Packet8, VoiceGlo, GossipTel, and the other pure VoIP guys. Skype, I felt, was dangerously headed in this category until today's rescue by eBay.