Skype Not Strategic Fit For eCommerce : eBay

Why did eBay buy and then sell Skype with just marginal profit? It has everything to do with incompatibility, says John Donahoe – the CEO of eBay. Justifying his company’s decision to sell Skype, Donahoe says that the VoIP service provider was not a useful tool for real time communication between buyers and sellers to negotiate a deal.

Another potential reason why Skype may not have succeeded on the eCommerce front appears to be the global nature of the process. According to Ian Fogg from Juniper Research, buyers and sellers may not be comfortable communicating outside email since it is not within everyone’s comfort level to talk to a person who does speak the same native language.

Donahoe says that the lessons learned from the unsuccessful acquisition of Skype will help the company moving forward.

[via Zippy Cart]