Skype Isn't Dead but….
Last week, I got e-mail from eBay's Henry Gomez
about his new job as Skype's North American general manager - along
with an invitation to contact him if I had any questions. Naturally, I
quickly took him up on the offer but didn't get a reply so I pinged him
yesterday about my interest in chatting. His response was intriguing
because he suggested reading my blog “one gets the impression you think
Skype is dead”. (Update: Check out Henry's response to this post in the comments below. He promises lots of excitment in 2006!)) I do not believe Skype is dead, although admittedly my
recent posts have been far from encouraging or positive about Skype's
prospects. What puzzles me is eBay's unwillingness or inability to
articulate how Skype fits into the bigger strategic picture. There have
been some signs of integration such as Dutch auction site marktplaats.nl
but I haven't come across a line-in-the-sand strategy statement by eBay
on how it is going to capitalize on Skype's technology and user base. I
think there's a sense of strategic urgency for eBay because competition
is coming hard and fast from rivals such as Yahoo, Microsoft and
Google. Yahoo, for example, is close to launching a new Skype-like service that promises to offer cheaper prices than Skype. Meanwhile, Michael Robertson's Gizmo Project is quickly gaining followers for its solid QoS and willingness to open its source code
to external developers. Amid all these developments, the big mystery
surrounding Skype is what eBay plans to do with it and whether its plan
can justify a $4.1 billion investment. Is Skype mostly going to be an
add-on feature within the eBay eco-system? Does eBay plan to
aggressively expand Skype's core telecom business? And how does eBay
see Skype fitting into the emerging pay-per-call model? Frankly, none
of these questions has been answered by eBay since the deal was
announced in September. Perhaps eBay wants to get Skype's new
management team in place (Gomez and Rajiv Dutta,
who will become CEO president after eBay finds his replacement as CFO). Rather
than suggesting Skype is dead, I guess what I'm curious about is
whether Skype can regain its momentum and/or mojo. Before the
acquisition materialized, much of Skype's popularity was its status as
a telecom rebel that was quickly changing the rules of the game. This
cache prompted millions of people to download Skype (more than 211
million last time I checked) and actually pay for premium services. One
of the challenges when a start-up gets bought by an established player
is maintaining the smaller firm's culture and entrepreneurial passion.
Until eBay articulates otherwise, I'm unclear about Skype is all about
these days.
For some other takes on Skype, check out Mathew Ingram and Rob Hyndman. For more information about Gomez, the San Jose Mercury News ran a long profile on Dec. 12.
December 10th, 2005 at 5:40 am
Rajiv is coming on a President, not CEO. Niklas Z. remains Skype's CEO.
December 10th, 2005 at 10:12 am
Om also keeps repeating that Gizmo Project is open source and he gets corrected. The link you post for this does not claim that it is open source. Yes, it is standards based; but is it really open source?
Aswath
December 10th, 2005 at 1:41 pm
Mark — Thanks for your blog and interest in Skype. I enjoy reading your comments on a whole host of tech issues. I found this post particularly intriguing.
Happy Holidays!
While I certainly respect your point of view, I do indeed believe you've written Skype off. Your posts going back to September are all highly negative. You rarely give Skype the benefit of the doubt.
While I appreciate your desire to hear and write about what Skype is up to, I'm sure you can understand our need to keep exciting projects confidential until they are ready for launch…we simply can't post our strategy in your blog for the world to read. After all, as you've pointed out on many occassions, there are a number of potential competitors out there trying to figure out Skype's plans. Penalizing Skype in your blog because you don't have a clear picture of everything we want to do seems a little unfair. But, hey, it's your blog, and you're entitled to your opinion, so go for it.
Anyway, I'm in London now, passing through following my first visit to the Tallinn, Estonia Skype office. The engineers and product teams in Tallinn are amazing. They've got a ton of ideas and a bunch of great features in the works (yes, that's a tease…). I think 2006 is going to be a fantastic year for Skype's users around the world. Yes, Mark, there's “mojo.”
As promised, I'll give you a call after the holidays. I look forward to speaking to you…and to more Skype banter in your blog.
Henry Gomez
General Manager, Skype NA