eBay said it was encouraged by the results of its early testing of Skype on eBay, but cannot promise the results will be replicated broadly as it expands the program. eBay has allowed Skype on the US marketplace in certain categories since June 2006. Until this week, it limited Skype buttons to 26 categories, but announced Tuesday it was expanding the program to all categories sitewide in the US, Canada, Germany and the UK.

eBay spokesperson Hani Durzy said there was low adoption in early testing, but eBay saw evidence of increased Average Selling Prices and conversion rates when Skype was used by buyers and sellers. "I don't feel we can say for certain it will continue broadly but we're encouraged enough to expand the test," he said. eBay saw no marked change in gray market transactions or fraudulent activity in early testing, Durzy added.

When asked why eBay barred competing services, Durzy said Skype is part of the eBay Inc. family and that eBay has better insight and can better manage Skype into the Sell Your Item flow and third-party services used to list on the site.

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m10/i31/s02