Comments on: Skype, Not Growing That Fast

By: skibare

skibare — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 14:36:08 +0000

reminds me of Time Warner throwing down for AOL…and look what happenned…yep, EBAY paid WAY TOO MUCH for Skype=====end of discussion!

By: Netanel Jacobsson

Netanel Jacobsson — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 11:39:56 +0000

Om, let’s just say that Niklas and Janus sold Skype at the right time…;). Remember when AOL bought Icq for $400MM in 1998? They gained users but until today, they still haven’t got any ROI - and probably never will. Not that I am comparing Skype with ICQ in any other way.

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 03:25:38 +0000

bill,

this is a fairly reasonable metric to look at how the company is doing financially. i mean it is much more reasonable than a company who judges its growth by the number of downloads. how is that accurate picture of their business.

By: Bill Gribble

Bill Gribble — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 03:01:59 +0000

It is inaccurate to project exponential growth on a daily or simple linear basis.

By: Sachin Kotwani

Sachin Kotwani — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 20:16:38 +0000

Amazon just started taking preorders for the Netgear Skype WiFi phone. Maybe newer technology of this sort will give Skype the final boost it needs?

By: Moshe

Moshe — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 18:11:39 +0000

“I just can’t seem to get the hefty $2.6 billion tag out of my mind. Just to be clear, these are revenues and not profits.”

Just the minutes much cost them at least 50% of their revenues -
advertising is the only way for them to make money…

By: rick

rick — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 17:50:04 +0000

Maybe so, but for $4 Billion. Not buying it.

By: Aaron Johnson

Aaron Johnson — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 17:03:33 +0000

I believe the 2.6 price tag was for what I like to call the AAI, the audience, advertising, and integration. This is what eBay wants, an AUDIENCE that Skype well known has.

Complete that with a contractual business approach with ADVERTISEMENT for free service and cheap devices, it's a simple money maker. We also have to think of how the services of VoIP will improve and when companies will have to figure how to make money other than per minute usage. This is where the guru's like Google, MS, yahoo and a ton of other search\VoIP starters are going to have to use their strengths of advertising to the package to gain a lot of their revenue.

As e-commerce leads and eBay being a innovator in e-business opportunities through auctioning creates an option for the INTEGRATION of VoIP which will increase business speed for more. I am not saying necessarily Skype was the only option but it's audience is what I believe eBay gained and wanted, which they will adverse to through integration and will be a large competitor against the search\VoIP companies in the years to come if they play their cards right which they are puzzling showing.

CyKiller

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:29:08 +0000

i am not sure. i think a bulk of their revenues come from licensing “skype approved” to handset/and other device makers. it is going to be tough to make big money on the minutes.

By: rick

rick — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:22:47 +0000

And how do they keep their competitive advantage? It's always been first to market. Now that voip is becoming a commodity, how do they expect to stay far enough ahead in the market?

Yahoo and Google will kick their butt.

By: rick

rick — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:19:58 +0000

When will Skype start advertising revenue? It’s the only revenue model for them to achieve billion $$$ levels.