Or is it the other way around?Some days ago i posted the feelings of Stuart Henshal (USA) in my post “We once were advocates”.
Some more “old” feelings …
I came across a post of Chris Toohey, Pennsylvania, USA, with the title “It's Official: Ebay purchases Skype!” and date 12 September 2005:
“Not too sure where I stand on this. I love Skype, and the Paypal integration sounds interesting... but I can't help but feel like I'm going to get hit in the VOIP wallet and my favorite way to communicate with people around the world will suffer.”
Was this a premonition?
And then i found this comment on the blog FutureLawyer from Richard M. Georges (also USA) with the title “Windows Live Messenger” from June 22, 2006:
“I am still using Skype … Skype's acquisition by EBay has removed its patina of the little guy fighting the monster software company”.
Hmmm … Skype should do something about these feelings! And today they did: they laid off Niklas Zennström. Some blogs and news sites even pretend that "eBay should immediately sell what's left of Skype to ...". Perhaps that is a good idea!So, is it: eBay doesn't love Skype?
[EDITED] See also the very interesting explanation of Janus Friis, the co-founder of Skype, thanks to my friend MuppetMaster on the Skype Forums!
2 comments:
I don't think Skype changes like it did all because of Ebay and PayPal. I mean, in contrast to many, I am a Skype user since the first version released ever! I have seen the very first steps (for the end user) and if there are changes, then mostly good ones and I do not think many are caused by Skype. infact Skype asked Ebay to step back, in consequencee, Ebay closed "Skype Germany" down and did lower their involvement. This is at least my opinion.
OK, Jörg, you are entitled to your opinion.
You could however be right that it isn't the Ebay influence only that changed Skype.
But lets be honest: growth isn't what it has been! But could it have been higher? Probably, if they had focused on staying ahead of their "new competitors" instead of focusing on taking more money from their existing customers: staying the cheapest, the best and adding new possibilities like webbased calling, instead of video-mood, chatrooms, SkypeFind (they are too late with this!), etc.
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