Rafe Needleman of Cnet’s Webware recently posted about web companies that he sees as “troubled” and “on the brink”. On this listed, Needleman listed Skype among these web companies who are in trouble.
My thoughts: In an economy that is on the downturn, companies such as Skype will prosper. Skype allows communication either for free (if you are calling another Skype user), or extremely cheap (if you are calling traditional landlines and mobile phones). This is an extremely attractive offer to people who want to communicate.
Skype even offers subscriptions that allows users you to make unlimited calls to North American landlines and mobiles for $3.00 a month. So, with Skype download numbers and revenues doing very well, what about this equation makes anyone think the VoIP grandaddy has any chance of being “on the brink”?
Additionally, when looking at eBay’s balance sheet, the company itself has a questionably sustainable business model. However, Skype, as an eBay subsidy, is doing very well with rising revenues quarter after quarter.
I just don’t see the basis of the argument that Skype is on the brink in this down economy.
Yeah, I was disappointed by that post and Skype was the most glaring surprise on his list.
Apparently Ebay’s disappointed and unclear on what to do with Skype but Skype itself is just getting started.
I agree, Skype had roughly 600k paying customers before EBay bought them, I have been a paying customer myself since 2005. Also most don’t consider the hefty license fee Skype gets from every CE maker of Skype enabled products like WIFI Phones, desktop phones, and even mobiles phones like the ones from Three in Europe.
EBay maybe on the rocks, but Skype has a business model which is solid, and may lead to a total transformation of Ebays business model as a whole.