When first announced, I recall a lot of head scratching inside the performance marketing community and online advertising in general. 

Tom Taulli of Forbes.com has done a fantastic job of presenting some interesting perspectives on what he calls the New Skype-eBay Ecosystem.  Says Taulli,

“Simply put, Skype-eBay wants to break the mold of the traditional telecom industry. Revenue won’t be generated from per-minute charges; rather, it will come from providing premium services. And, no doubt, Skype-eBay wants to be the de facto platform for this new communication system.”

In his interview with Saul Klein, the VP of Marketing for Skype, we learn that “New types of services are possible,” according to Klein.  He uses this example:

Suppose a San Francisco businessman needs to conduct a call with a potential client in Rio. He can search for Portuguese translators on eBay and get a list of them, their location, their rates and their ratings by other users. He selects one and can then instantly conduct a three-way conference call via Skype and pay for the translation service via PayPal.

Further, Klein outlined four areas where other companies will benefit from the Skype-eBay combination: hardware, software applications, voice services and personalized Skype content.