Skype's still in the "we're losing money" stage. But they're doing everything they can to grab customers right and left. The original idea was for there to be a synergy between Skype and eBay, but eBay's never been able to leverage that, and they're having second-thoughts about the acquisition last I read, especially since it's been an expensive venture that hasn't made any money for them.
Skype's current plan seems to be to do the VoIP equivalent of dumping -- selling services for a MASSIVE loss in order to drive everyone and everyone over to the Skype side and push out every last bit of competition they can. I imagine if they thought they were fueling competition with this move, they'd kill it in a heartbeat. They'll never really compete in the landline replacement area -- their service simply isn't designed for that, and they're not interested in it. But they can grab up every bit of random VoIP business they can from the casual consumers with moves like this. Consumers of VoIP these days are RARELY interested in anything other than the cheapest price. They assume VoIP sucks for quality and are pleasantly surprised when they discover it's not really any worse than a cell phone call. But they're looking to spend as close to nothing as they can because they believe that somehow, zero cents a minute is still competitive. People like that flock to Skype in droves because Skype DOES offer something that seems too good to be true. But they have the financial backing to offer it and not care how much it loses them for now. I keep hearing about the 'businesses that use Skype,' but I've never actually run into one that uses it for anything other than the occasional "salesmen can check in from the road" kind of perspective. It just lacks the flexibility and mission-critical nature that companies expect from both VoIP and their phone systems. Does anyone else know of any companies that actually buy into Skype for business? N. Nitzan Kon wrote: > They're assuming the average usage will be more like 500 minutes. > > If you really used 10000 minutes (or even close to that), I bet > they'll boot you off their network faster than you can say "Skype". > They say it's for "personal usage only" which is a license to kill > anyone who even appears to be running any sort of business on it. > > Not to mention there's probably hidden fees, rate hike in the future, > etc. > > Otherwise, it's not possible. If it's too good to be true- it isn't. > > -- Nitzan > > --- On Thu, 5/29/08, Justin Case <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >> From: Justin Case <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> Subject: [asterisk-biz] How is Skype pulling this off ? >> To: "Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion" >> <[email protected]> >> Date: Thursday, May 29, 2008, 5:23 PM >> Anyone know how Skype is pulling this off ? >> http://www.skype.com/allfeatures/subscriptions/rowcountry/?country=US >> Their fair usage is 10k minutes. If I used Chanskype and >> blocked the CID >> anyone can make a >> mint._______________________________________________ >> --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by >> http://www.api-digital.com-- >> >> asterisk-biz mailing list >> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: >> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz >> > > _______________________________________________ > --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- > > asterisk-biz mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz > _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- asterisk-biz mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
