Skype Journal: Skypeage
May 3, 2005 10:37 PMOm probes the "Skype vs Vonage" cost models and along with comments tends to believe that Skype beats them on cost. Apparently Vonage needs another round of funding too? I've never really understood a business that has to borrow money to buy customers. Still there are a couple of questions I think emerging that we ought to be asking.
There is a school of thought which believes that Skype’s value added services, SkypeIn, SkypeOut and Skype Voice Mail could become a major nightmare for Vonage. Om Malik
First the question I now ask everyone.
1. Do you have a Skype strategy? And I don't just mean telecoms and handset vendors. I can include social networks and any site on the net.
2. If "voice" is hot, then what's your voice activation strategy? How will you bring the excitement of conversation back into business. Do you have a strategy to enable websites? Do you have a way of embedding your software into smart applications?
3. Are you sure you want to kill Skype? Do you really still want SIP? How badly? I'd suggest you spend some time thinking about the RIAA and the results of tearing up Napster. Skype seems more like Napster than Gnutella. The world isn't ready for mesh networks. Could Skype be the bridge?
4. Why are you still costing on transactions and minutes served? When will you recognize that "presence" is the economic generator that enables "identity" solutions to emerge. Isn't the point in time where presence associations are created the "event" where value exists in the future?
At the end of a long day.. just a few things I'm pondering.
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