Skype
At last, the Skype integration starts to appear
After paying somewhere between $2.6-billion and a gazillion dollars (okay, $4.1-billion) for Skype about nine months ago, eBay finally seems to be getting around to doing some of the integration that everyone was talking about at the time. One of the most interesting possibilities is Skype-Paypal integration, as seen in a screenshot at Om’s blog — which in turn came from Random Good Stuff via a German blog.
Developers were apparently shown a right-click menu with the option to “send money (via PayPal) and “request money.” Random Good Stuff mentions the obvious possibility: Web-cam porn outfits asking you for money via Skype and PayPal. But at least eBay is starting to show us some synergies between it and Skype.
There’s another obvious one as well that is in the works: a SkypeMe button that sellers can attach to their profiles in eBay. But several major questions remain: Will enough sellers want that feature, or will it be an annoyance? And won’t it just encourage sellers to close transactions outside of eBay? And are these integrated features worth $4.1-billion?
Update:
Someone from 21talks.com points out in a comment that the PayPal functionality has already been announced, which was covered by their site and also by SkypeJournal. Thanks for that, Nuno. That makes eBay’s announcements yesterday somewhat less impressive.
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busted tees
In fact, the functionality has been integrated in Skype for a month. SkypeJournal has covered it, (link)
Forbes too — and us too :), but that’s off the point.
Thanks for pointing that out, nuno — I must have missed that. Now I’m even less impressed with eBay’s announcements :-)
to actually resell product. The Skype expectation requires additional Developer Program resources on Skype’s part in order to facilitate promotion of their developer partners’ offerings. This was reinforced in my interview with Lenn Pryor. AndMathew Ingram agrees with my impression that there was a lot of hype created for what amounted to the pilot activity of a long expected integration with eBay auctions. Powered by Qumana