Skype 3.0 - A New Revenue Strategy Revealed?

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Earlier today Skype released version 3.0 of their software and the most important part of the release is what was not there and what they did not say. While the automation of one-click dialing of phone numbers on websites when a user is logged on to Skype is a nice feature to have, I am more interested in where Skype is going with the other e-commerce services that Zennstrom, “cannot talk about…that are being worked on today.”

For a long time eBay has been criticized for the hefty price tag it paid for Skype and while Skype has quietly tripled it revenues this past year, it still has not quieted their skeptics. And I am sure Skype 3.0 will do little to silence them, but if you can read between the lines, you will see that there is light at the end of the tunnel. When eBay purchased Skype, they did so because it was a missing piece to their e-commerce puzzle.

eBay already had the world’s largest marketplace, and one of the world’s largest payment processing companies, PayPal. With Skype, they got the worlds most downloaded communication software. With more and more business moving online, and an increasing need for non-technical e-commerce solutions, eBay is moving towards becoming a turnkey e-commerce solution. Forget the advances by Skype, eBay, and PayPal as siloed entities, think of them as one - the ultimate e-commerce solution for the non-technical business, entrepreneur, or business-person. The comments made by Zennstrom, the moves eBay has made (with ProStores), the ability to use PayPal as small business booking software, and the emergence of the Internet as a marketplace for any business, is signs that eBay is almost ready to launch the ultimate e-commerce solution.

That folks, is the real story here.