Skype Gift Certificates came out of beta testing yesterday. You can use your Skype credits to pay for someone else's Skype products.

While they make fine holiday gifts, there are a few limits in this early release. Not everyone can buy a gift certificate: you must be a Skype user, your account must be in good standing (at least with Skype's credit department), you must have been using your Skype account for three months, and you must use Euros as your Skype money setting. You don't need your giftee's permission, but they do need a Skype account. [note to self: work on the London branch of the family to get on Skype.]

When you give a gift, you get a 3% rebate. This is enough of a margin that some people and companies will probably become resellers of Skype Gift Certificates, at least for people who trust them. At least one company is experimenting with this, so a new channel of distribution for Skype may be on the way.

This release of Skype Certificates and Skype Groups is an important milestone for Skype. It paves the way for elegant and rich business and technical architectures for commerce. Edge commerce (pay a dollar for my time or my file), reputation management, currency arbitrage, dispute resolution, identity services, and market making. All with web services and APIs for developers to build Skype's commerce into their own sites, software, and gadgets.

Short term, this could wind up booking purchases of Skype products to eBay's Fourth Quarter. Since they are prepaid services, I don't know if the money received goes on the books as revenue or debt. The SkypeOut TOS says Skype will refund money if asked. Does Skype get to keep unclaimed money? Or does Skype only get to reflect the revenue when a service is consumed or a prepaid account is abandoned?

See also:

• Skype's announcement
• Bill Campbell's first take on their announcement
• Skype Gift Certificate FAQ
• Skype Gift Certificate forum
• Skype Journal articles on commerce
• Skype Journal's translation of the SkypeOut Terms Of Service