Skype has been in the news a lot lately. Over the past six months, rumors swirled that the peer-to-peer telephony service provider was going to be bought back from eBay by its original founders, to be spun off as a separate company and then IPO, and ultimately to be sold to an investor group (which was confirmed at the beginning of this month). Now Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis through their Joltid holding are suing eBay and the new buyers over copyright issues centered around core p2p technology used in Skype product which they have developed and own.
The rumors just won’t stop.
This time, however, it’s about the company’s product strategy rather than its general fate. A well-placed source tells me Skype management is actively shopping around for companies that provide web-based communication services such as browser-based calling and video chats.
To date, Skype has focused on desktop and mobile software to handle peer-to-peer based calling over the Internet. This is not surprising, because when Skype first started back in 2003 bandwidth costs were a an order of magnitude higher than they are today and desktop apps were the only way to go if they were ever going to make a decent profit from Internet-based telephony. But with bandwidth prices decreasing worldwide at a fast rate, it makes a lot of sense for Skype to at least consider moving into web applications and claim their ground. The fastest way to do that would be to pick up a startup with proven technology and early traction in that field, like TokBox, PalTalk or Tinychat.
Here’s another reason Skype might be looking at web-based communication service providers. What if eBay/Skype cannot develop a workaround that would allow them to continue the service without using the Joltid-owned source code powering its core peer-to-peer engine? It’s conceivable that might drive the company to consider purchasing companies with similar or related Web-based technology to speed up its move away from the litigation threat hanging over them.
Of course, companies talk to one another all the time and as far as we know there haven’t been any official acquisition offers from Skype at this point. But they’re definitely looking.
Looks like the meme monster is opening up some space for Skype in contrast to the massive iPhone wave there’s been (and the recent wonderful TechCrunch50 startup contest). I look forward to a continual buzz about Skype for the months to come.
I’m still waiting for an all-out marathon contest between TechCrunch and Mashable on who can review the most startups in a 24 hour period, with a real prize on the line. Something like the loser has to make a video where they wear the other guys T-shirts while singing “Who ate my business plan?” while holding a live Furby in their hands.
this would be a good opportunity for skype to adopt xmpp and jingle.
My site has been using skype to do just this! http://www.sweetr.net
I think the Skype is hooped without the JoltID hash table tech and I am surprised eBay would buy something without owning the core tech? Weird.
Anywhoo…my users love Skype regardless of who owns the IP.
Happy connections all
As far as I know, PalTalk isn’t web-based and it requires a download.
WooMe and 6rounds can also be a great purchase for Skype, although I believe the price for WooMe might be a little too high for them…
How long before we can video and phone call on facebook anyway – then how relevant will skype be?
it will remain relevant as long as you can place calls to outside numbers. If either gtalk or facebook implements that at good rates, skype is history.
Purchase Tokbox which is integrated with Meebo, and win my loyalty forever. It’s that easy, Skype!
ick. Please god no.
Paltalk or tinychat would be fine. Both seem to do their jobs well.
Doesnt tokbox have 15mm in funding? Amazing how bloated, slow and buggy a app becomes when you get money thrown at it like no tomorrow.
It does seem like paltalk has a *lot* of porn on it though. 1 out of every 3 rooms I went in on their paltalk express thing has dudes jacking off to each other.
Another company to keep in mind besides tinychat would also be camfrog- They have a desktop app so maybe it would be a drop in replacement.
Camfrog or Tinychat should be fine, although I definitely like the idea of skype being accessible like meebo is.
I doubt Skype is going to get any of the above sites for cheap though- They are all huge with funding.
I hope whoever ends up owning Skype doesn’t kill it. It has happened before…
Maybe Skype should be integrated with a large platform like Facebook or Yahoo.
It’s a great product, yet since gmail added voice chat I have not used it.
It is sounding more and more like Zennstrom and Friis were selling eBay application rights to the GlobalIndex platform, but eBay thought it was buying a free-standing product.
The sellers probably always intended to have a galaxy of applications running on GlobalIndex, which would explain why they were pissed when eBay started changing the underlying technology (fragmenting the platform) and making it available to third parties (expanding rights through sublicense).
It reminds me, at least on a superficial level, of VW’s purchase of Rolls Royce, where they neglected to buy the rights to the all-important brand and logo.
There’s a great story in this for some business journalist.
TokBox is the clear heavy player in this field. It would make sense for Skype to support browser-based calls and conferences. The client has been iterated on quite a bit and it’s pretty impressive where it’s at now.
How you figure that? Every site in this article has more traffic than tokbox, not to mention tons others not listed.
Go to alexa.com and look this stuff up
Camfrog.com
paltalk.com
tinychat.com
oovoo.com
woome.com
ooVoo rocks
Our company has been delivering mobile video chat for quite some time now with our own p2p technology. We don’t have a web version out yet but its coming soon.
Check it out, you can video chat over 3G on any windows mobile phone to any other iVisit user.
What exactly is “a rumor”? How about “Robin Wauters reports that Robin Wauters has thought about why Skype might buy a www chat company.”
Skype has the option to become a hub.
It’s Woome.
I tired your site, cool idea, but is not working, hanging all the time.
Since when new startup like TokBox comes before the king of voice chat Platalk?
I for one hope skype gets out from this mess asap. These Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis freaks are the biggest trolls in tech, fully deserving microsoft’s throne.
Skype could go SIPphone/Gizmo easily and inexpensively. Please don’t send a dime to Jolt!
It’s not about video, it’s mobile. Just look at the investors pedigree.
I was under the impression that TokBox had recently fired half their staff and that they were on their third CEO in 18 months? Having said that, they have secured a fair amount of investment and the site is impressive.
I’ve seen one or two other small rivals which are entirely browser/flash based such as Yakity (www.yakity.com) but I wouldn’t imagine Skype would be interested in them.
“But with bandwidth prices decreasing worldwide at a fast rate…
Exactly. This race to zero is precisely the reason why Skype (and others) need to add value on top of transport. Something like business presence, which Skype can use to managed and find the right person in an organization for a customer to speak to, regardless of location.
I think they should check out Vidyo
Seems like all of these proposals in comments have drawbacks of some sort. Firstly, all of them require downloads, therefore cannot be used on mobile devices.
Tokbox does not require a download but they are failing due to their extreme need for servers. So many connections through Flash without using rtfmp is a resource hog and it will never work.
I’m currently working on a project under wraps that using Flash and p2p video calls in browser no download required. Too bad it wont be out soon enough…
http://www.tmcn...me-a-Jingle.htm