As a network that links many private buyers and sellers around the world, eBay already acts as a giant communications company, handling millions of emails a day, though it does not have a real-time communications network to let its users contact each other to agree deals or settle disputes immediately.
However, Skype’s business is far less developed than PayPal was at the time it was bought. PayPal had already gone public and was generating around $200m in annual revenue when eBay bought it.
Rajiv Dutta, eBay’s chief financial officer, said that Skype’s early success had exceeded even that of eBay and PayPal, both of which had been slower to turn their early users into fee-paying customers.
He added that eBay had assessed the purchase price based on a number of factors, including the expected future earnings from Skype, the valuation of other internet acquisitions and number of Skype users. Some 54m people have downloaded Skype’s software, making the price that eBay has paid for each user lower than the amount it paid for PayPal, Mr Dutta said.