Why does eBay need Skype ?

Agreed that Skype under performed, that its quality can be sometimes quite indifferent. But what was eBay doing in the first place, paying US$2.6 billion for Skype, which was offering a service that was fast commoditized, in a market where competition was coming from multiple categories of players ?

It is not that Skype brought to eBay customers for its core auction business. Nor would auctioneers and bidders stop doing business on eBay if they couldn’t click-and-call through Skype. It is when a company starts wanting to own all the plumbing and fixtures, which is not part of its core business, that problems begin. Internet telephony is certainly not eBay’s core business.

On Monday, eBay, of San Jose, California, said it was taking a $1.43 billion charge related to the acquisition of Skype, according to a report in the International Herald Tribune.

Since the purchase in 2005, Skype's membership rolls have swelled past 220 million. But the company has not had as much success making money as it has had growing. Skype does not charge its users for calls to other Skype users. There is only a small fee for calls to landline numbers and cellphones, according to the International Herald Tribune.

In the event, Skype earned $90 million during the second quarter of 2007, far below eBay's projections.

Skype was one of the first movers in the pure-play VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) market, but its share of international VOIP traffic was in 2006 smaller than that of the international carriers it was expected to displace, according to TeleGeography, a research division of PriMetrica Inc. While the volume of international traffic routed via Skype was significant, the quantity was still small when compared to a global switched and VoIP traffic base of 264 billion minutes, it said in a report. Computer-to-computer traffic between Skype users in 2005 was equivalent to 2.9 percent of international carrier traffic in 2005 and approximately 4.4 percent of total international traffic in 2006.

The company’s business is said to have flagged because of less-than expected business in its paid VOIP calls business to landline and mobile phones, even as Skype-to-Skype calls boomed.

It appears that VOIP services offered by carriers, and PSTN calls, continue to dominate the market, despite forecasts that VOIP would ease out PSTN. It may be true that VOIP, because it is cheaper, will progressively ease out PSTN. But the new business will probably go to the large carriers who have the capital to invest in infrastructure, an existing stable customer base, and existing originating and terminating connections for calls.

That is why we have a new crop of VOIP service providers that prefer to work with the big telcos, providing the VOIP piece, while originating calls and terminating calls through the telcos. “ We put money in the telcos pockets. We wouldn’t have fight with the telcos because they are established and strong,” a Jajah Inc. executive told Network World some months ago.

The success of pure play VOIP is as yet not certain. TMCnet reports that Paul Budde Communication, an independent global telecommunications research and consultancy company, has released a report, called 2007 North America — Telecoms, Broadband and Mobile Statistics, which points out that North American cable providers are reaping the benefits of a consumer market looking for less expensive phone service coupled with added features and ease of billing.

The competition to pure-play VOIP service providers is hence multi-pronged.

Which brings me back to my question – what is eBay doing slugging it out in the patently unpredictable VOIP market. What benefits does it expect from deviating from its core online auction business ?

To be sure, some auctioneers may like to have “click-to-call” features on eBay. But eBay needn’t have bought a large VOIP firm to deliver that. Whether eBay encourages it or not, any number of VOIP players are offering click-to-call “buttons” and other services on eBay, social networks, blogs, wherever you want. In the end they meet eBay’s fond desire to offer click-to-call. But first eBay may have to spit out Skype to folks more at ease, and street smarter in the VOIP market.

Why Mahatma Gandhi never got the Nobel Peace prize

In India, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known as the Mahatma (great soul), is regarded as the “Father of the Nation”, even if his teachings are not particularly observed in letter or spirit.

Martin Luther King, American civil rights leader, acknowledged he had been inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent form of mass protest. King went on to win the Nobel prize for peace in 1964.

Yet his mentor, Mahatma Gandhi, never won the Nobel prize though nominated five times for the prize, because the Nobel Committee judged that he was “neither a real politician nor a humanitarian relief worker,” according to a report on Indian television channel IBNLive.

The Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation in Sweden, Michael Sohlman, says that it was a mistake by the Norwegian Peace committee, according to the TV channel. “We missed a great Laureate and that’s Gandhi. It’s a big regret,” he said.

In India, like New York, a proposal for a traffic congestion tax

The Indian city of Mumbai, formerly called Bombay, may implement a kind of congestion tax. Drivers will have to pay to drive on some of the city’s key roads during peak traffic hours, the city’s traffic management consultants, Mastek say, according to a report by an Indian TV channel IBNLive.

The plan of action involves setting up cameras and scanners on major congested roads to detect the car's registration number, the TV channel reported. Special software will be used to determine the car owner, the owner will then be sent a bill based on his road usage, and electronic payment systems will be set up to make bill payment easier, it added.

Key Indian cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore are facing traffic jams and long delays because of an increase in population, and the number of vehicles on the road.

In April, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, unveiled plans for a congestion charge on cars entering the busiest parts of Manhattan. That move has been stalled by New York state legislators who hold that a congestion charge on driving in Manhattan will lead to congestion in areas around Manhattan, where people going to Manhattan will park their cars, to avoid the charge.

In Mumbai, the reduction of congestion of its main roads may also shift the burden to other parts of the city which already face heavy flow of traffic. Unlike Bangalore, Mumbai has a well-connected suburban railway system, which gives most of its residents the option of using the train rather than drive to work.

London moved to congestion charging in February 2003. The zone was extended into west London and doubled in size in April, according to a recent report in The Guardian. Other cities like Singapore and Oslo have entry tolls and other forms of congestions pricing.

American secularism stripped ?

I always suspected that when heave came to shove, Americans would go searching for their Christian roots and give secularism the go-by. The heave and shove seems to have come from the growing influence of Islam and other religions in the country, and yes, perhaps the audacity of a person with a Muslim name to aim for the country’s Presidency.

Truly, the US had an Indian priest, Rajan Zed, read a prayer to the Senate, to protests from some Christians in the galleries Yet the Hindu prayer in the Senate boiled down to more of good form rather than real secularism.

Else what is one to make of US Presidential candidate and Senator John McCain telling beliefnet in an interview that, “I think the number one issue people should make [in the] selection of the President of the United States is, 'Will this person carry on in the Judeo Christian principled tradition that has made this nation the greatest experiment in the history of mankind?'”

It is easy to dismiss McCain as a rare bigot. I am however worried he is one of many Americans who hold this view. His mistake was he shot himself on the foot by being frank.

McCain may in fact be reflecting the view of a large number of Americans who believe that the US constitution and political tradition is based on Christianity and Christian values. No place here for jihad, I guess, but certainly place I guess for strong Christian traditions like the Crusades and the Inquisition. You know what, it are these double standards, and arrogance about Christian tradition that riles other religious communities !

Sixty-five percent of Americans believe that the nation's founders intended the U.S. to be a Christian nation, and 55 percent believe that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation, according to the “State of the First Amendment 2007” national survey released Sept. 11 by the First Amendment Center, a nonprofit organization focused on education and information about First Amendment issues in the US.

Rick Green of WallBuilders, an advocacy group that believes the US was built on Christian principles, told USA Today that the poll doesn't mean a majority favors a "theocracy" but that the Constitution reflects Christian values, including religious freedom. "I would call it a Christian document, just like the Declaration of Independence," he told USA Today.

One redeeming result of the survey was that the right to practice one’s own religion was deemed “essential” or “important” by nearly all Americans (97%). This figure speaks for American tolerance, but not for real secularism, I think. What the people surveyed, and McCain seem to be saying is “this is a Christian country, but of course we are tolerant of other faiths”.

It is not dissimilar from the UK, where the country claims to be secular, but the monarch takes the oath to protect the Anglican faith. Of course the UK too tolerates other religions within its constitution, inspired as it is by Anglican principles.

As non-Christian religions with their cultural baggage threaten the American’s Christian way, not only by violence but in most cases by peaceful co-existence and assimilation, the country’s secular foundations may be giving way. From secularists, Americans may be moving to tolerance. Bigotry, albeit subtle, may not be far way.

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