News outlets around the world are spreading the buzz that Skype was acquired by Microsoft for a cool 8.5 billion dollars. 
According to this “The Telegraph” article, Microsoft says Skype ‘will have more adverts’, Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype was the largest deal to go down in its 36 year history. What will this mean for Global Ecommerce? Maybe just a lot more ads, like the aforementioned Telegraph article suggests, but we think it will mean a lot more than that–at least we hope so.
Ecommerce merchants already engaged in international sales know that having reliable and affordable communication tools with a global reach is worth its weight in gold. In fact, some of the international businesses we’ve talked with were absolutely jubilant to switch from using conventional phone systems and teleconference stations to using Skype. Skype has even been the communications gold standard among non-profit leaders working in the back country areas of third-world nations, so business executives who typically operate out of larger metro hubs around the world never thought twice about using Skype–that is until they had a “Call Dropping” occurrence. Skype’s forum is full of them.
We would dare say that the ability for business teams to have good communication is one of the most important elements of running a business. If that becomes hindered then business ceases to be efficient and everything from operations to customer service goes down the drain. This is especially true with ecommerce because of the fact that most business is conducted online. For many global ecommerce businesses, store staff are located all over the world, only connected through online chat platforms and conferencing programs like Skype. Those of us who work from a virtual office also know that choosing which communications tools to use on a daily basis is a big decision. Once everyone gets used to logging into that program of choice, it’s difficult to change the habit.
Because Skype has been more reliable than the rest and has penetrated most of the countries in the world as a legitimate global communications tool, most ecommerce businesses use it to some extent for international calls and conferences. But, the dropped calls are still a nuisance. (in fact, every time this author has one, he mulls finding another service).
The best thing Microsoft can do with Skype, besides milking more profits out of Skype by drowning users in advertisements, is to ensure it’s title as the preferred global communications tool for ecommerce merchants. The best way to do that is to tighten up whatever loose wires there are causing those dreaded dropped calls and negotiating better deals in countries where Skype doesn’t work so well (i.e. Belize).
