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13.09.05. You can never tell where the next good idea is
going to come from (Skype, EBay and sustainable development)
Editor’s note: I
want to bring this article from today’s New York Times to your attention
with the thought that it shows how technology and society rarely advance in
straight lines. And how innovation more often than not comes
from off the wings, rather than from the center. As many of you know we
here at EcoPlan and The Commons have been using Voice Over IP for several years
(the early ones being a bit painful to be sure) and for the last year have been
firmly plugged into Skype for virtually all of our international communications
(other than for videoconferencing where after no less than twelve years of
extensive daily use our present technology of choice is
What’s the point? Well, that I think we will do well in our uphill
struggle toward a more sustainable and just society to spend a bit more time
looking into the wings to see what might be out there that can help us make a
difference. Indeed it has for years been our firm belief here that these
internet based tools are one of the most obvious parts of the solution set. And
if we think of the Skype progression from file sharing software for trading
music (Kazaa) to a long string of lawsuits for theft of intellectual property
and from thence on to a pathetically small backwoods technology startup in of
all places Estonia -- all of which within two years have presented to the
traditional, huge, entrenched and apparently tone deaf telephone monopolists
the challenge of their fat and sweet existence. Hmm. And now for more of the same in the sustainability wars. Are
you staring right in front of you or are looking out there on the wings?
**************************************
Betting
on future: EBay to buy Skype
By Ken Belson The
NEW YORK EBay said Monday that it had agreed to buy Skype Technologies, the
Internet phone provider based in
The total value of the deal may grow based on "potential performance-based"
considerations that could be worth an additional $1.5 billion, eBay said.
Though revenue is expected to grow to about $200 million, from an estimated $60
million this year, eBay does not expect Skype to turn a profit until the fourth
quarter next year.
EBay's purchase ends months of speculation about which company might buy Skype,
which since 2002 has been giving away its software that allows people to talk
to each other for free by linking their computers. News Corp., Google and Yahoo
were mentioned at one time or another as potential suitors.
In buying Skype, eBay's executives are making an expensive gamble that giving
its 157 million traders a way to talk to each other for free will make it
easier for them swap everything from toys to cars. Skype could also help eBay's
customers trade real estate, vacations and other
services that typically involve more detailed conversations to complete, eBay
said.
"Communications is at the heart of e-commerce and community," said
Meg Whitman, chief executive of eBay, which also owns PayPal, the online
payment provider. "By combining the two leading e-commerce franchises,
eBay and PayPal, with the leader in Internet voice communications,
we will create an extraordinarily powerful environment for business on the
Net."
While eBay will acquire Skype's 54 million users in 225 countries and
territories, the company said it was not interested in becoming a
telecommunications provider or challenging incumbent phone providers.
Still, with Skype adding 150,000 users a day, the firm represents another
threat to established carriers that have expensive phone and data networks.
In
About two million Skype customers have signed up for a pay service that allows
them to use their computers to make calls to regular phone numbers as well as
receive calls from landlines and mobile phones.
To complete these calls, Skype pays phone companies small per-minute fees.
Skype's software also offers features that include voice mail, instant
messaging, call forwarding and conference calling.
Only 13 percent of Skype's users, though, are in
With growth at eBay showing some signs of slowing, Whitman said she was not
interested in developing a portal that included a variety of products and
services, like Yahoo, Microsoft and Google have been doing.
"I'm a big believer in focusing brands and businesses that are in very
large markets," she said by phone from
Last month, Google announced a service similar to Skype's free service called
Google Talk, and Microsoft said it was acquiring Teleo, a
Even without a portal, some industry analysts said eBay's purchase of Skype was
a sign of how voice calls were increasingly becoming one of many services that
companies will provide, not a stand-alone business.
"This turns the entire telecom industry picture on its head, and
demonstrates that voice, presence, text messaging and other IP-based
applications will be essential for the company of the future," said Jeff
Pulver, the chairman of pulvermedia, which promotes Internet-based phone
services.
EBay shares rose 32 cents to $38.94 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Still, some industry analysts were less certain that eBay should have paid so
much money for a company with so little revenue and a technology that is being
rapidly imitated.
"Quite frankly, you look at the numbers, and you realize there has to be
something more for eBay to buy into," said Carmi Levy, an analyst at the
Info-Tech Research Group in
Terence Neilan, Andrew Ross Sorkin and Vikas Bajaj contributed reporting.
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