Ahhh...now *that* makes sense

Ever since eBay purchased skype for an amazing $2.6 billion (good job Skype team), the question has been flying around the blogosphere: What the hell was eBay thinking?

It’s a good question. Espeically considering i’ve seen it debated on A VC’s journal.

(Edit: Fred added a post today about the same topic.)

But I saw an explanation today that makes perfect sense to me, left in the comments at Bubblegeneration:

Back to eBay. With the purchase of Skype, eBay will create a marketplace for professional services; listed on eBay at a $/min basis, fulfilled via skype.

When this happens: A “service listing” on eBay, unlike today’s “product listing” becomes a re-usable microchunk from the perspective of the seller! For this reason, eBay + Skype has the potential to start creating cumulative value once eBay adds professional services to their Marketplace. - David Gibbons

If you ignore the econ mumbo-jumbo, it sounds like ebay wants to allow people to sell real-time, VOIP services. Good lord, that’s an excellent idea.