By Adam Pasick
Ebay's acquisition of Skype could be worth up to $4.1 billion to investors in the Internet telephony start-up, but it is getting mixed reviews from Skype's fervent supporters.
It was the hard-core Skype fans whose word-of-mouth advertising helped it become the world's largest voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) provider without spending a penny on marketing. It has some 54 million registered users and usually has more than 3.5 million people online.
But the sale to eBay could signal the end of the evangelical zeal from users that drove Skype's rapid growth. Its software -- which offers free computer-to-computer calls between Skype users -- has spread in classic viral fashion, as each new user convinces friends and family to sign up.
In a poll on the forums
"In my opinion, the takeover by eBay means to me possibly and probably the end of free Skype services. I anticipate a very bad future for us here but I sincerely hope I am wrong," the Skype user Alan2 wrote on Monday.
Users also raised concerns that the purchase of the Luxembourg-based Skype by a U.S. company could mean new legal constraints on the service.
"How much time before someone makes a Taliban joke and the feds descend on their home with the Patriot Act?" Skype user Slvaldor wrote. "How long before the music and movie cartels start suing for snooping access to Skype's network through the (U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act) DMCA?"
The U.S. government is considering regulating VoIP services, which could include provisions for law-enforcement wiretapping.
A ruling by the Federal Communications Commission in August required that some VOIP services provide for wiretap access within 18 months, but it is not yet clear whether the order includes Skype.
Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis are sticking with Skype, and eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman said on Monday that she intends to nurture the core Skype business even as its voice call features are integrated into eBay.
The early adopters of fast-growing start-up services like Skype often become disillusioned when their favorite company is sold. Some users of the popular online photo site Flickr
Yahoo and fellow online powerhouses Google, Microsoft and AOL, are aggressively targeting the voice-over-Internet market, so unhappy Skype users will have plenty of options if they decide to leave the service.
"We can just sit back and watch. Smile. And hey, if eBay is doing that bad we can just switch to tons of other VoIP software," said user Uhura.
Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.
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