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Ebay Should Sell Skype To News Corp

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Oct 09 2007 12:00am EDT

eBay Should Sell Skype to News Corp

Further proof, if proof be needed, that eBay should never have bought Skype: the fracas currently underway between eBay and Jajah. Jajah is an internet telephony company which has developed "buttons" that eBay sellers, and others, can embed on their sale pages. Using the buttons, a prospective buyer can talk for free directly to the seller without the seller having to give out a phone number or pay exorbitant fees for a toll-free number.

eBay, however, doesn't like the idea of Jajah buttons on its website, and has decided to block them. The ostensible reason is that the buttons violate eBay rules about linking away from the website; surely it's also relevant, though, that Jajah is a competitor of Skype, and that eBay owns Skype. Since eBay is only very slowly rolling out Skype buttons, and still doesn't allow them on its listing pages, it makes sense that eBay wouldn't want to allow Jajah to have a headstart in that market.

Are eBay's worries about fraud realistic? Maybe. eBay has reason to want to keep all communication between buyer and seller on the record: a seller can say whatever he likes on a phone call, if it isn't recorded by the buyer, and the buyer can't prove it. But if this is such a problem, it's not clear why eBay bought Skype in the first place.

I think that Rupert Murdoch should take Skype off eBay's hands, and fold it into MySpace. Talking on the phone is something much more naturally suited to a social network than to an auction site with control issues.

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