A major milestone has been reached by online auction house, eBay with the news that it has now notched up 200 million registered users.
In terms of population, if eBay were a country it would be the fifth largest in the world. All the more reason, perhaps, for small to micro-sized companies to consider trading via eBay as a low cost way to national and international e-commerce.
Meanwhile, eBay, who purchased Skype in September last year, are to integrate the broadband telephony service into the eBay network. In a bid to improve communications between buyers and sellers, it will soon be possible to include Skype Me buttons into listings.
The idea is to be piloted on selected product categories before a general roll out. The calls during the pilot testing are to be free, but it remains to be seen whether eBay will be sticking by the Skype tagline “The whole world can talk for free” for the full scale launch. Another factor affecting the take up may be the reluctance of sellers to field phone enquiries from potential buyers. At the moment, communication between buyer and seller is done via email.
