eBay's Shining Skype

This column was originally published on RealMoney on Jan. 25 at 11:42 a.m. EST. It's being republished as a bonus for TheStreet.com readers. For more information about subscribing to RealMoney, please click here.

To me, the story at eBay (EBAY Quote) was Skype's amazing results. eBay is still roundly trashed for having made that acquisition, but that will change shortly. Almost a year ago, I wrote about how eBay's acquisition of Skype was wholly a bet on the Skype service reaching critical mass and becoming a de facto standard in VoIP.

Last night, eBay announced there are now 171 million Skype subs, and that total is obviously growing steadily. I can tell you anecdotally that several colleagues, partners and friends have lately mentioned using Skype, especially to talk business overseas. Indeed, I use Skype often with my RevEcho.com programmers in India.

Skype is a great play on the still-just-burgeoning outsource movement that's creating so many jobs here in the U.S. and in India. We're all leveraging the Internet and tools like Skype to create new efficiencies in our lives, businesses and economies. ...