Because of already established business model Skype doesn’t need to sell advertising, which means that it doesn’t need to infringe on users’ privacy by turning their personal information into a salable commodity for advertisers — in my mind the fundamental flaw of web-based social networks.
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29 Responses
12.11.2009
Worthless idea.
12.11.2009
Yeah, I remember how great cable TV was, because it didn’t need to have advertisements! Trust me, corporations will ultimately do everything they can to raise as much money as possible — because it’s all about growth — often killing the goose that lays the golden egg. It may not happen right away, but once a company goes public or is sold…
12.11.2009
goodbye facebook, I mean myspace
12.11.2009
Same can be said about Google services after acquiring Gizmo5
12.11.2009
What’s amazing to me is that Skype hasn’t crushed regular phone services yet — it’s a "mobile" landline that’s at least 10x cheaper than anything Time Warner, Bellsouth, etc., can offer, with the added bonus that someone can chat you before they even have to get you on the phone.
12.11.2009
Would you pay your ISP if you didn’t use Skype? If you have no other uses for the Internet, then Skype is expensive; if you are already connected, it’s cheap.
12.11.2009
You’re paying for the internet either way.
12.11.2009
why dont the media use it for ‘phone-ins’ etc ? maybe its to do with licensing. the sound quality is incomparable
12.11.2009
well, it’s already got porn chat-bot spammers on there so, all that’s left is for crappy bands to join and it’ll pretty be myspace w/ video chat.
12.11.2009
" it doesn’t need to infringe on users’ privacy by turning their personal information into a salable commodity for advertisers" Doesn’t need to, but that doesn’t mean it won’t.
12.11.2009
Yup that’s the right idea.FTA: Each Skype client could serve a XML file with the user’s current status, media files, link feeds and so forth, and to obtain a real-time view of what’s happening with other users, it could call around to folks in a user’s Skype list to get the latest updates. Such a system could be highly decentralized, with most content served directly from one user to another, and largely self-hosted, which means the infrastructure costs would be much lower than a centrally run web service. … By moving this functionality into the client, apart from a caching mechanism to temporarily store content for users while they’re offline, the need for a centralized web-based infrastructure is greatly reduced.
12.11.2009
But you’re still paying for high speed internet through those companies…. You can do the same thing with a free VOIP codec.
12.11.2009
Nope.
12.11.2009
Doesn’t stickam already accomplish this?
12.11.2009
Retarded.
12.11.2009
it is already…
12.11.2009
Skype and AIM should be integrated into facebook/myspace
12.11.2009
Skype is already a social network. What’s with shaving hairs over semantics?Just because you add "social network" marketing pixie dust to a product or business doesn’t make it a cash machine. Social networks are just the latest fad in a long line of mostly failed Internet business ideas. Why shoehorn everything into the taste du jour?
12.11.2009
Skype is awful and proprietary. If they were to switch to open standards and develop good non-Windows clients it’d be worthy of at least consideration. Skype for cell phones, for example, is a pathetic (and very expensive) joke. Skype for Linux is an empty, crashy shell compared to the Windows version. Skype for Mac is really no better. I don’t know anyone who wants to be glued to a Windows PC 24/7. A better solution for Skype to become a social networking thingy: develop some sort of web-based social networking web site and use only open standards and then convince or force the existing user base to buy into it. (ICQ tried this a decade ago and you can see how that worked out.)A better solution for the people of the world: Use an existing social networking website and an open standards based chat/video/voice service (e.g. Google, Gizmo, etc) that works with any device running any operating system.
12.11.2009
I don’t think that’s the point of a business, in fact, it could be irrational. That’s just my opinion. A company whose mission statement — explicitly or implicitly — is "to make as much money as possible" would probably have a lot of unhappy workers and customers and produce garbage (ie many large phone companies, media companies, mortgage companies, etc…). To me, the point of a business would be to take what I can produce well and distribute it as efficiently as possible to people who need it.A lot of companies make their money selling people things that they don’t need and that don’t really make sense, but they use propaganda (advertising) to convince people that their product is the answer to some perceived need. I keep a copy of Maslow’s hierarchy above my desk so that I can remind myself what my real needs are. I’m waiting to sell my too big house and build a smaller, more rational one because a few years ago I fell for the "house as investment" meme as well as the "I have to have a big house to attract a mate" meme. It ultimately proved inefficient and irrational. I traded a job in the "make as much money as possible world" for a job in a more rational one (I started my own company). I now make less than half of what I made then. I’m making a living, but not a killing and I’m a lot more efficient at taking the things I can produce well and distributing them to people who need them.
12.11.2009
Skype is awesome. Hopefully the original owners can make it even more useful.
12.11.2009
What can make it irrational is pursuing "making as much money as possible" to the exclusion of such things as sustainability and humanitarian considerations for both your own workers, your management, your clients and your community. I put some examples down, including the mortgage and real estate companies which recently imploded and wrecked the US and world economies. Making as much money as possible, to the exclusion of other factors, isn’t sustainable. Many places in the world are environmental catastrophes because of it.I’m aware of many companies that were very successful in making lots and lots of money and didn’t satisfy their customers. I work with investors on a weekly basis who tell me of being misled and ripped off by dishonest brokerages, all of them well known — several of them out of business now. Companies that have monopolies are notorious for making lots of money with low or no customer satisfaction.Actually I have a grad degree, graduated magna cum laude and had papers published while a student. I had the highest gpa and performance in my class as a nursing student previously, three nominations to the Naval Academy as a teenager. Not an average student at all from the gpa perspective. Simply striving for the highest marks possible isn’t a very good strategy in school, from my experience. Most people would do better having average gpa’s and working in the field and gaining experience. There are lots of paper (CNA’s, MSCE’s, doctors, engineers, etc…) out there who got the highest grades in school but lack people skills and/or work experience and are burned out young.I respect that you think differently than I do though…
12.11.2009
I worry that a successful service such as Skype will branch out too far and lose the edge it has by focusing on it’s corner of the telecom market. This is especially true when considering how many other sites are jockeying for a piece of the social networking space. Even if Skype successfully added social networking features, would it be able to convince millions of Facebook users to switch over?
12.11.2009
Isn’t the point of a business to make as much money as possible? They’re not here to provide a free lunch.
12.11.2009
"I don’t think that’s the point of a business, in fact, it could be irrational."What makes it irrational?As for the rest of your statements, they’re horrible. Why would a business have pissed off employees, customers and ***** products? I don’t think there are any successful businesses that haven’t satisfied their customers at a minimum." I now make less than half of what I made then."Wow, if that is rational lol. Nah, forget it. I don’t operate on that form of thinking. Maybe you can go back to school and not strive for the highest mark possible. Just be average lol.
12.12.2009
i told some girl that skype was so 2 years ago, she flipped out and called me a moron.
12.12.2009
I find it humorous how everyone talks about how "cheap" it is, when you never consider the cost of your ISP, do you people have free magical internet?