eBay tries to get back some of its Skype money

The $30 per year price tag for calls to landlines might "pop the bubble" so to speak with Skpye's image, fascination, and desirability.

But for the hard core users, Skype will still probably be successful despite the fees. For domestic calls, it would no doubt be much more difficult to incur that same $30 back in savings.

But that $30 can still be saved back easily in International calls. Skype will still be a better deal than any international plan that a cell phone carrier or traditional carrier can offer. This is one of the reasons that Skype is so popular in Europe - all of those countries so close together doing business with a common currency called the Euro organized under the European Union. That is where Skype has changed things - company located in Austria or Switzerland calls its shipping company in Italy or Greece. Traditional international calling would cost them a fortune, but Skype changes things wityh Internet calling. Heck, I remember hearing about Skype for the first time when I was on a study abroad program in Europe in the Summer of 2004.

But here in the United States, it is not an international call to call California from Idaho. The $30 fee is not going to help Skype's business potential here. This may turn alot of people off for good.

And Skype meshing with Ebay, a total mesh is not possible. It will be beneficial for big ticket items: automobiles, high dollar antiques, etc. But most transactions by most registered Ebay users would not really benefit from Skype. Large power sellers don't want to be contacted day and night by telephone for low ticket items when some of the largest volume sellers sell thousands of items per year.

So with these observations in mind, what is my opinion of Skype.

Answer: While Skype certainly greatly benefits some consumers, so far I am not impressed.

Well, we will know in January how much this will affect Skype's revenue potential. If 10% of the current user base or 13.6 million users decide they are willing to pay $30 a year for this service that brings in an additional $408 million in revenue during 07. That revenue will certainly help eBay's 1st Qtr. 07 revenue numbers but where do they go from there? Is eBay prepared for the fallout if they don’t reach there projected numbers? What happens if they can only convince 1% of registered users to pay? Trying to get another 10 million subscribers to make that switch later in the year may be very difficult.