Skype Aspires to Be De Facto Solution for Online Directories and Classifieds
Today’s announcement by eBay and Google received major media coverage. From Om Malik’s blog:
“Skype, wants to leverage its 113 million registered users to become the defacto standard for “click to calls,” Don Albert, North America General Manager for Skype told us in an early morning chat.”
This announcement means two things. First, presence-enabled click-to-call features are table stakes for any publisher in the online directory or online classifieds space. Readers of this blog didn’t need today’s announcement to know that! Second, every major publisher need ask themselves whether they care about Skype becoming the de facto solution.
As relates to the second point – if you are a major publisher and you are reading this, please check out some of the previous posts in this blog which make the case for partnering with ContactAtOnce! to gain competitive advantage and explain how ContactAtOnce! compares to Skype.
My favorite reason…because Skype’s 113 million registered users are nothing compared to the number of users that have a browser. A consumer need only have a browser to use ContactAtOnce! from your directory or classified site – with Skype the consumer must first download and install Skype software from the Skype/eBay website. Advertising 101- why limit your audience when a simpler and less intrusive option is readily available and extends your audience to the maximum. Read more…
So…there is a better solution than Skype for this particular application. I’m wondering how many publishers have the vision to act before the likes of Google and eBay win by default…
2 Comments:
I agree with your statement, the world should not revolve around a few behemoths, otherwise we recreate the environment that stiffles innovation in the firstplace, would like to speak to someone at your firm, we are I believe one of the first to implement the click to call function via flash into our app server and serve it to the masses of portals, via companies like yours. www.centile.com.
the key would be to be able to also do this via any flash applet going to a carrier grade app server, then the interconnections are limitless, a few companies hold the rights to the process, these companies should partner with companies like yours to make sure this market is not skewed and companies in general have the best products to market to thier end client in terms of use and value. check out www.centile.com, they will be a good partner for you.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home