[LINK] P2P in the Aftermath of Grokster

[rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au]

>rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au [rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au] wrote:
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>>I read last week that eBay's valuation on Skype's forward revenues was 
>>zero; its actual revenues weren't zero, but an annual ARPU of a dollar 
>>per user is a good approximation of sweet f.a. ... P2P works fine, 
>>because it's just a communicating application. But P2P with an enforced 
>>transaction is a bottle-rocket business model.
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>what are they thinking!!?!?!? I am completly baffled by ebays purchase of skype.
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We agree on that one. E-bay's caught this bubble-notion that its 
buyers/sellers will buy or sell more if they can place VoIP calls to 
each other. It's a triumph of the technical imagination ignoring 
established behaviour.

If I'm an eBay seller, there's no convenience in suddenly getting 3,000 
phone calls saying "but is it 'real' Chanel Number 5?". And what's the 
value for the buyer when the answer will be "of course" whether it is or 
not? Remember, we're not talking about whether eBay can get a few people 
to make a few VoIP calls, which it could do without buying Skype, but 
whether eBay can wring billions of dollars' worth of value out of the 
purchase. I can't see it...

RC

>Vic
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