Roundup: Skype / EBay part deux
Source: saunderslog.com
As a continuation of last nights marathon roundup of Skype / EBay stories, here are a few I missed.
Richard Stastny pointed out that some of the best posts of yesterday came from James Enck over on EuroTelco blog. He’s right!
Niklas and Meg 4-ever: James’ final thoughts.
Chastened?: Why didn’t the telco have the foresight to do this?
I remember Skype: Wonderful reminiscences of his first meeting with Niklas.
Richards comment was: "yesterday I was in a meeting with a majority of telco people when the message came through, and espacially the mobile operators where laughing and joking about Skype and Ebay. They still do not get the message - until it will be too late."
This was similar to Rick Segal’s in his great post titled Skype-Ebay and Today’s Lesson. "I got an email from a good friend of mine at Bell. The key line? “Well, that’. a relief.&rdquo. Hmmm. Personally, I’d be a bit more nervous then that."
Charles Hudson, in Obligatory Skype eBay Post, writes: "What does a small online merchant struggling for respect and visibility really want and need? Probably the same thing that his/her larger counterparts have – the ability to accept payments (PayPal), a web presence (provided by eBay), and the ability to handle customer service and interact with its customers using the same channels that lots of other retailers do (the phone). I don’t believe that the Skype acquisition is really about enabling online chatting to close auctions. Have you ever been in an eBay auction? Unless it is a “Buy it Now”, most of the action happens in the last 10 minutes. What good is Skyping in that case? I would argue that Skype is most useful for those merchants who really do meaningful volume on eBay and want to be able to provide customer support or buy pay-per call advertising. Ditto on international customers who are never going to pick up a traditional landline to make an international call to close a sale or ask a question.". That was my point, here, yesterday.
Update: Another great speculation piece over on Poductivity. In Buy my Attention: $0.02c / min. on eBay via Skype, David speculates that someday soon you will be able to sell your eyeballs to an advertiser via EBay / Skype: "… the clock starts ticking when we answer the skype call, click the "icon" on the pop-up on our screen, and appear on your screen by streaming video. You get to interact with us, tell us about your products, ask us our opinions. You’ll probably have to pre-purchase Fred’s attention, me, you’ll mostly get "on demand". Major corporations will buy attention in bulk and hold direct to consumer interactive "press conferences" with individuals in target audiences who can influence the adoption of their products. The more the marketplace knows about you, the more passive income your attention will attract, provided you fit the demographic that is. When we hang up, our Skype account is credited, yours is debited, and we have the option to cash out via PayPal. Kiss "privacy" sweet goodbye online, "publicity" is about to become profitable on SkypeBay." Fantastic, maybe. Who knows.
