Skype portal partner TOM-Skype, serving Chinese users, reported today:

• 12 million user accounts at the end of April, a cumulative number since the start of the partnership. This is a jump of 4 million new accounts since the end of February, about 33 thousand daily. If Skype has 100 million, that keeps TOM-online as a key partner.
  
• The TOM-Skype client software is downloaded from Tom.com and now from eBay China.
  
• The Skype partner tab is sending "significant" traffic to Tom.com channels, Interactive Voice Response (TV related music) and HJSM.
• They plan to offer in-Skype banner ads and other advertising over the next 2-3 quarters.
  

This is the version of Skype that filters IM conversations per Chinese government direction, as reported by Skype Journal.

Observations:

This is pretty good distribution considering VoIP is banned on most Chinese networks.

17 minutes is how long it will take for the first Skype ad blocker to make the rounds after in-Skype ads appear.

The "partner tab" should be a user interface component open to developers, maybe even open to users. Imagine: Tools > Create New Browser Tab > Set Default Home page > Set Default Channel Pages. It's the difference between a trusted platform which others build on and users customize (good) and a walled garden (not so much). As a social medium, I should be able to share my tag configs with friends, perhaps by dragging a tab to a chat session.

See also:

• 950 thousand new TOM-Skypers monthly in mainland China
  
• FT: Zennström confirms Skype filters text; questions he would not answer
• BW: Skype caves in to Chinese censors
• China keeps VoIP Illegal
• More on Skype Blocked in China
• "No change" says Skype on China blockage
• Joint Venture: Skype and portal partner TOM Online
  
• Skype's new Portal Plays...